Precious baby syndrome affects doctors

Doctors are not immune to a phenomenon known as the "precious baby" effect, researchers revealed yesterday.

Psychologists have found that parents who have children through assisted reproduction have an exaggerated concern for the welfare of the baby.

This was found to be linked to an increased chance that a mother would opt for Caesarean section.

Now researchers say it also, starkly, affects the advice that doctors give.

Researchers asked obstetricians what advice they would give to women of 37.

They found that very few doctors would recommend a woman pregnant with a child through assisted reproduction to undergo amniocentesis test for Down’s syndrome – as the test carries a small risk.

In these circumstances just 19% of doctors would recommend the test.

But 45% of doctors said they would recommend the test to a mother pregnant by natural means.

The findings came from 160 doctors who completed anonymous questionnaires involving a hypothetical situation.

The research was conducted by Israeli doctors working with Dr Jonathan Rolison, a psychologist at Queen’s University, Belfast, UK, and Dr Yaniv Hanoch, a psychology lecturer at Plymouth University, UK.

Writing in the journal Human Reproduction, they say: "Thus far, researchers have provided only indirect evidence to support the claim of differential management of assisted reproduction technology pregnancies, but our findings show they do not appear to be immune to the precious baby phenomenon.”

Dr Hanoch said: “Some pregnancies are deemed by parents to be more valuable than others, particularly if conception has taken several courses of assisted reproductive treatment to achieve. But you might expect clinical recommendations regarding pregnancies to remain consistent, particularly when it comes to tests for serious medical conditions.

"However, this study demonstrates there may be a tendency for clinicians to be affected by the nature of the pregnancy before determining the parents’ wishes.”

Human Reproduction 2013 28 (11): 3007-3011; doi: 10.1093/humrep/det354 [abstract]