Reasons Pregnant Women seek Prenatal Sonographic Gender Disclosure in Makurdi, Nigeria

Abstract

Fetal gender disclosure, a non-medical prenatal ultrasonography indication, although largely ethically unjustifiable, continues to grow and thrive in demand due to its request by pregnant women. The study aims at establishing the proportion of women who want to know fetal gender during prenatal ultrasound. This was twelve months` prospective study of all pregnant women, 16weeks and above who presented at our facility for antenatal ultrasound in Makurdi from 7th May 2019 to 6th May 2020. A structured questionnaire was used to obtain information on factors influencing their willingness to know the gender of their unborn children. The information collated was entered into statistical package for social science (SPSS) version 23.0 for analysis. P-values=0.005 was considered significant for the study population. Two hundred and fifty (250) pregnant women were recruited for the study. Majority of the women 233(93.2%) showed marked interest in knowing the gender of the fetus, while 17(6.8%) did not. The main reason for wanting to know the sex of the fetus was for easier choice of clothing and naming; whereas the main reason for not wanting sex disclosure was because any child is good. There was no statistically significant correlation between gender preferences and the other variables such as age, educational attainment, tribe and previous miscarriages (P=0.136, 0.485, 0.275 and 0.942 respectively). Majority of the women 233(93.2%) want fetal gender disclosure due to ease of choice of clothing and naming. The deliberate policy of non-disclosure on account of non-medical indication during prenatal ultrasonography is untenable in our environment.

Obstetric Ultrasonography Beliefs, Expectations, and Experiences among Women Attending a Tertiary Healthcare Center in North-Central Nigeria

“…Dasan et al, 24 reported that participants wanted more scans and even told others about their center because of the friendly healthcare workers, accuracy of scan reports, and low costs. Furthermore, some respondents' expectations to know the fetal gender, the expected date of delivery, and the baby's well-being may have heightened their expectations, 16 prompting some to even contemplate self-request for a scan, a finding that was previously reported. 17 However, a small proportion of our respondents 6(4.4%) expressed low expectations which were possibly related to what was incorrectly perceived as harmful effects of US, such as cancer, discomfort, and fetal anomaly.…”

“…This is predictably consistent with previous studies. 16,17 Another explanatory variable responsible for our respondents' obstetric USG beliefs, expectations, and experiences was their residential area, whereby women living in urban areas outnumber those living in rural areas by about thirteen-fold, with urban women having access to better infrastructure, obstetric USG information, and favorable variation in distance between health facilities. 18 Monthly income, a sociodemographic component was associated with obstetric USG beliefs, expectations and experiences, even though a good number of our women, 189 (79.2%), were predominantly low-income earners.…”

Assessment of the baseline pattern of obstetric sonography referrals, indications, and findings at Benue State University Teaching Hospital (BSUTH), Makurdi

“…When the indication is explicitly stated, the sonographer is more focused during the procedure and produces a report that is more insightful to the referring physician, thus dispelling the rumour surrounding the misconception of overestimating the diagnostic capabilities of ultrasound machine [8] . Despite the fact that fetal gender disclosure is an ethically unjustifiable and non-medical indication for prenatal US [26] a minority 13 (1.6%) of our pregnant women still used the technology to determine the sex of their unborn child. Women who have had fewer than two pregnancies 9(69.0%) were by far more likely to request gender disclosure as shown in figure 3.…”

“…The low numbers of pregnant women desirous of fetal gender disclosure during our research may just be coincidental; however, they compared favourably with the findings by Utoo et al [8] , in which 13(2.6%) women had prenatal US for gender disclosure. Apart from the fact that both studies were conducted in the middle-belt region of Nigeria, there is the assumption that our women are beginning to accept the gender of their babies as a gift from God and prefer to be content with the gender that they were given [7,26] . Ikeako et al [7], however, reported that a much higher number of women 37 (17.8%) desired fetal gender disclosure from south-eastern Nigeria, suggesting that the sex of the child is still a major concern in other communities.…”

“…Ikeako et al [7], however, reported that a much higher number of women 37 (17.8%) desired fetal gender disclosure from south-eastern Nigeria, suggesting that the sex of the child is still a major concern in other communities. The desire to know the gender of the unborn foetus has been cited as one of the disadvantages of prenatal US, which has led to sex-selective abortions, especially when the undesired fetal sex is disclosed in certain societies with strong gender preferences [26][27][28] .…”