Amniocentesis Books

This book was a great resource for us as first time parents. We were both nervous about the many procedures that are preformed during the course of pre-natal care. This book helped to answer the questions that our OB/GYN left kind of hazy, like the AFP Testing & Sonogram. All the procedures were explained in terms you could understand easily & helped ease our minds at each step. We were able to be more comfortable during the procedures & confident we were making the right choices for our baby.

In our society today educated and well-intentioned people have put forth and encouraged the belief that religion and science are as incompatible as oil and water. This is not so. I have had the unique opportunity to participate actively in both disciplines: religion and science. I hold a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Denver and a Master of Arts in Theology from Wartburg Theological Seminary. I read Keith and Laurie Wexler's book while researching prenatal diagnosis issues in preparation for a bio-ethics presentation; and, again, as I wrote my Master's Integrative Project paper. In addition to being designed in an easily accessible manner, I found this book to be a valuable resource for anyone, whether in the healthcare field or not, who wishes to receive the best care afforded by today's changing technology and highly-trained specialists. As a guide for pregnancy testing and issues it was reassuring to have a quick reference for important questions during my wife's pregnancy, ultrasound and amniocentesis. The author was careful to present information in a non-biased perspective to avoid offending the reader's own political and religious sensitivities. This is no small matter as there are many books on this subject which are slanted in one direction or another making their use unpalatable regardless of their pertinence to the subject matter. Most importantly, this book helps dispel one regrettable myth held particularly in the religious community, that prenatal diagnosis and testing are useful only in the eventual termination of the unborn child. As a person of business and a theologian, I recommend The ABC's of Prenatal Diagnosis: A Guide to Pregnancy Testing and Issues to anyone preparing for a pregnancy or seeking answers to important questions during pregnancy.

This authoratative guide to pre-natal diagnostic testing is a must for all expecting mothers (and fathers) who want to better understand the choices presented to them by their doctors when it comes to prenatal testing. Finally, an easy to read book on things like:

a. What is an AFP and is high or low a good thing?

b. What are the risks involved with an "Amnio" (short for Amniocentesis)?

c. What is a CVS?

d. What are my options with ectopic pregancies?

e. What should I expect from my insurance companies?

This very informative book helps provide the context for a more effective discussion of options with any OB/GYN, and helps provide insights into the inner workings of the medical industry. Use this guide to help make the best decisions for you and your child.

How does one, as an anthropologist, write about amniocentesis? Rapp's work redefines the scope of anthropological inquiry helping us look at U.S. culture as an acceptable site of investigation. Focusing on both the "medical establishment" and the "clients" it serves, the book leads us into alternate worlds of creating/inventing medical technology, and delivering medical technology. It is not as simple as putting women through a standardized process; their are questions of individual need, race, spirituality, class, profession, family support, and many other factors that affect the process of amniocentesis and the value of the procedure to the women who receive or refuse the technology. Beautifully written, Rapp follows many threads, both narrative and scientific, to reveal a picture that is not quite so neat.

I read Rapp's Testing Women, Testing the Fetus for an anthropology/gender studies class, and as an examination of the way different ethnic groups in NYC approach amniocentesis and prenatal testing as a whole, it might be very interesting.

However, that is not what the book is about. The book is supposed to be about the impact that amniocentesis has on women's lives as they are faced with the decision not only to have the test, but what to do with the information they recieve. But Rapp was so intent on characterizing each of her interview subjects by race, occupation (hence class) and gender, that she ultimately separated and categorized her subjects in ways that left the reader hanging. She did not make any definite conclusions about amniocentesis, only that women make decisions about amnio based on values they had before they even got pregnant, possibly due to ethnicity.

If I were pregnant this book wouldn't help me at all in making a decision. But the chapters on how the tests are analyzed are quite interesting, and the chapters on disability and the way we as a society deals with disabled children in an age when it's easy for them never to be born changed the way I think about disability, and for that reason alone I think it should be read.

While not exactly what I expected I found this book to be rather eye opening. The premise of the author, while she wrote about 100 or so women she interviewed, was that amniocentesis is a test that, if the results are bad, leads to abortion. In other words, this test gives women the opportunity to selectively abort children who are seen as otherwise imperfect in today's society. Whether or not you support the test, this book gives you much food for thought. A word of caution though, this may not be the right book to read if you are looking for the right answers to an amniocentis you are contemplating right now. It may be better read while you are not pregnant.

I bought this book in the middle of some very difficult decisions whether to have an amniocentisis following a positive MSAFP. The premise, that for many women pregnancy is tentative for the first trimester because of fear of miscarriage and for the second trimester because of fear of negative results from the amnio really fits my experience. I was hoping this book would provide some validation and reassurance. It didn't. It is very much a social commentary which subtly criticizes women for wanting to control whether or not to bear a child with a disability or fatal deformity. I was hoping to have some validation of my experience, and instead I felt judged and criticized.

This book is the result of a study.
It is about the expierence women had after getting back a flagged test or after getting a routine amniocentesis based on age or history. It is not a book about whether or not you should have an amnio it is about what your choices are and how women dealt with their results.
This books will make you think about the abuse that routine prenatal tests can cause a woman and hopefully it will help you deciede whether or not you want the test done.
I think this is a well writen book.