Educating themselves and engaging in a healthy

Educating themselves and engaging in a healthy lifestyle
Some participants spoke of gathering information to
know what actual risks are and to be prepared. Partici-
pants with low perceived risk scores and high or moder-
ate perceived control scores often reported that they had
prepared themselves for pregnancy complications to
"not be surprised by risk" (Participant 1). This 39 year-
old participant with a high perceived control score who
perceived a low risk for her pregnancy stated:
"I ’ m healthy, I ’ m fine and I ’ ve prepared myself, I ’ ve
educated myself . . . Yeah I think it would be less
stressful [if I were younger] because I wouldn ’ t have
to educate myself so much. I would have educated
myself but I feel like I had to do that extra little bit of
research because I was in that high risk group, I was
in that you know “ more chance of something going
wrong group. ” So I educated myself a little bit more."
(Participant 1)
These participants were also focused on improving
their lifestyle and engaging in healthy behaviors to pro-
tect their pregnancies.
Reassuring surveillance tests
Because most women were aware of the association be-
tween genetic problems and older maternal age, receiv-
ing reassuring screening test results was reported as a
relieving factor. A desire to seek actual and tangible
signs of the baby's health to confirm that "it's a normal
baby" was evident in the interviews:
"When I had one [ultrasound], and I saw that
everything was okay, he was developing okay, then I
had the tests done, the blood test, I said okay, he ’ s a
normal baby, so I stopped worrying." (Participant 12)
Some participants chose to take screening tests as part
of their preparation to deal with anticipatory issues and
to decrease concerns related to fetal health. Based on
several participants explanations, undertaking screening
tests was a reflection of their desire to plan and be
prepared:
"We just wanted to do it for our own sake of mind,
just for our own peace of mind. I like planning my
life, I like preparing for things, I like being educated
and ready for whatever, I wanted to know, if I ’ m going
to have a baby with Down ’ s syndrome. I want to know
so that I ’ m prepared, so that I can educate myself as
to what this baby ’ s needs are going to be. At least if
you ’ ve prepared a little bit, you might be able to
handle it differently." (Participant 1)
Overlooking (ignoring) the risk
Some participants reported an inclination to disregard
the risk to avoid excessive stress and anxiety. In fact,
overlooking the risk was a very common approach
among our participants, even among those who edu-
cated themselves and were engaged in a healthy lifestyle:
"I ’ ve been trying not to let research or other reports
or what I read influence my way of thinking . . . I
know they exist, I ’ m not saying that ignorance is bliss,
but I just don ’ t focus on it." (Participant 1)
The following quote from a 44 year-old participant
who had both a low perceived risk score and a low per-
ceived control score describes this approach. She and