Maternity Services - Greenwich Hospital

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Patient Care Services

Genetic Counseling
Genetic Counseling is a communication process that translates technical and complicated knowledge into practical information for individuals and families.

Genetic Counseling can help individuals and families:

understand the cause of a condition
know the chance of having future children with a condition
learn about current research, testing procedures, prenatal diagnosis
contact community resources, and if possible, other families or patients with the same condition
adjust to the personal and family issues related to a genetic disorder

In addition, they counsel couples who are planning a pregnancy and are interested in prenatal diagnostic testing, which might include carrier screening for genetic disorders or amniocentesis to rule out chromosomal abnormalities. Genetic testing and discussion of the results with a knowledgeable counselor can help people through the maze of fear, misinformation and family strife that may accompany discovery of an elevated risk.

Who might benefit from genetic counseling?

Anyone planning a pregnancy
Women who are concerned about the results of their maternal serum alpha fetoprotein (AFP3) test
Couples who are interested in prenatal diagnosis such as amniocentesis or targeted ultrasound.
Couples who are first cousins or close blood relatives
Couples who have experienced repeated pregnancy loss
Parents of a child born with a birth defect or an undiagnosed disorder
Individuals of certain ethnic groups who may wish to be screened for disease causing genes that occur more frequently in those groups
Anyone who has had a sibling die in infancy
Anyone who has a family history of birth defects, mental retardation, developmental delays, seizures, muscle or kidney disease

Carrier detection and prenatal diagnosis is available for these diseases which are more common in certain ethnic groups:
Thalassemias (inherited anemias)
Tay-Sachs and Canavan disease (severe neurological disorders)
Sickle Cell disease (painful life-threatening anemia)
Cystic Fibrosis (pulmonary disease and/or pancreatic insufficiency)

Carriers have no symptoms. If BOTH members of a couple are carriers, the couple is at risk of having a child with the disorder.

Prenatal diagnostic tests may also include:

Maternal serum alpha fetoprotein screening (AFP3) to better define a woman’s risk for certain chromosome abnormalities, such as Down syndrome, and neural tube defects such as spina bifida
Fetal tissue sampling or amniocentesis to rule out chromosome disorders and some biochemical problems for which certain couples may be at increased risk
Targeted, or Level II ultrasound imaging of the fetus to look for structural abnormalities

For an appointment or further information, contact Helen Temple, MS, genetic counselor.

Telephone: (203) 863-3917
Fax: (203) 863-3467
E-mail: HelenT@greenhosp.org