Women's perception of teratogenic risk

Administration of the Visual Analog Scale (VAS) to 80 women who presented to the Canadian organization, Motherisk, in 1986 revealed an exaggerated perception of risk of teratogenic effects among women exposed to drugs and chemicals in early pregnancy. The 69 exposed to nonteratogenic agents assigned a mean risk of 24% for major malformations in the initial interview; after counseling, however, the risk was perceived to be only 14.5%. On the other hand, the mean risk score assigned by the 11 women exposed to known teratogenic agents remained unchanged at 36% after counseling. There was no association between estimation of risk and the number of preparations consumed, age, parity, or socieconomic status. The misperceptions of risk documented in this survey reflect a tendency in the popular literature to assign risks to drugs such as aspirin that are not proven to have adverse effects on a developing fetus. This is an important area for counselors to address, given the impact of risk perception on the decision to continue or terminate pregnancy. A follow-up study of 78 Motherisk clients who had indicated at presentation (prior to counseling) a greater than 50% inclination to terminate their pregnancy revealed that 61 decided, on the basic of counseling, to continue with the pregnancy; 57 of these women delivered normal, healthy infants, while the remaining 4 miscarried.