BackgroundThe aim of the study was to estimate the proportion of women giving birth in two hospitals in the Region of Southern Denmark who did not attend the malformation scan and to elucidate the reasons for not participating.MethodsIn this register-based descriptive study, we used patient administration systems to identify women who had given birth at two Danish hospitals between March 2013 and January 2015. We then linked this information with the hospital database for fetal medicine (Astraia) to identify women who did not attend the malformation scan at week 18–20. We reviewed the medical records of these women to validate the data and to identify the reason for non-participation.ResultsOf 7690 births, 153 (2%) women did not attend the malformation scan. The main reason for non-participation was a passive deselection (81%). Most of these women were not present in Denmark at the time of the malformation scan (61%) and few women declined (8%).ConclusionsLess than 2% of a birth cohort in two major hospitals in Denmark did not attend the free offer of a malformation scan. Most of these women (81%) did not actively decide against the malformation scan. Very few (0.2%) declined the malformation scan. Non-attendance is not always due to an active decision made by the pregnant woman.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12884-018-1877-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Background The detection of an abnormality during prenatal screening implies that the parents are informed about possible treatment and management of the pregnancy, birth, and postnatal course. This information should enable the parents to make decisions regarding the pregnancy, especially in cases where termination of pregnancy may be an option. The objectives of this study were to investigate how often doctors informed parents about pregnancy termination when the fetus had an anomaly and which demographic factors were related to parental decision-making. Methods This was a retrospective cohort study with prospectively collected data of fetuses diagnosed with an abnormality during prenatal screening between 2014 and 2016 in Denmark. We categorized the abnormalities into five long-term prognosis groups and analyzed their association with the doctor provided information about termination. We tested the association between demographic variables and parental decisions using univariate and multivariate statistical analyses. Results Three hundred and twenty fetuses were diagnosed with an abnormality. In 67% of these cases, the parents were informed about termination. All parents whose fetus had a lethal prognosis were informed about termination. By comparison, the parents of 98% of fetuses with genetic disorders, 96% of fetuses with poor prognosis, 69% of fetuses with uncertain prognosis, and 12% of fetuses with good prognosis were informed about termination. Of these parents, 92% chose to terminate. A lethal long-term prognosis was the only factor related to parental decision to terminate a pregnancy. Conclusions Doctors mainly informed parents about the option of pregnancy termination for conditions with a poor or lethal long-term prognosis or for genetic disorders. Only conditions with a lethal prognosis were significantly related to the parental decision to terminate the pregnancy.

Introduction To investigate the performance of the second‐trimester ultrasound scan regarding ultrasound‐detectable congenital malformations in a Danish region. The study sample was population‐based, with 6 months of postnatal follow‐up. Hospital records and autopsy reports were reviewed in each case to validate the prenatal ultrasound diagnosis. Material and methods This population‐based cohort study included all fetuses (n = 19.367) alive at the second‐trimester scan in four hospitals in a Danish region. The final diagnosis of the malformations was based on hospital records during the 6‐month postnatal follow‐up. In case of termination or stillbirth, the result from the autopsy report was used to validate the prenatal ultrasound diagnosis. Results The detection rate of congenital malformations in the prenatal screening program was 69%, where 18% was detected on the first‐trimester scan and 51% on the second‐trimester scan. Another 8% was detected in the third trimester. Specificity was 99.9%. The positive predictive value of the screening program was 94.5%, and the negative predictive value was 99.5%. The overall prevalence of malformations was 16.8 per 1000 fetuses, most frequently in the heart and the urinary tract. Conclusions This study shows that the national screening program for congenital malformations can detect many severe malformations and is an effective screening test for malformations.