The newborn screening educational gap: What prenatal care providers do compared with what is expected

Abstract

Objective The purpose of this evaluation was to examine prenatal care providers' knowledge of, attitudes towards, and barriers for providing information about newborn screening and tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) screening. Study design We mailed a 12-question survey to 6197 prenatal care providers in California asking about their experiences with newborn and prenatal screening services. Results Although 4/5 of respondents believe newborn screening is very important for their patients, only 1/3 discuss it with all their patients. Over half believe either pediatricians (38%) or hospital staff (36%) will discuss newborn screening. Only 61% of providers give their patients the newborn screening educational booklet, even though California law requires that the booklet be provided to all pregnant women. Conclusion Pregnant women and state professionals rely on prenatal care providers to educate pregnant women about newborn screening; however, many providers do not appear to view it as part of their responsibility. Therefore, the state needs to improve communication with both providers and the public about newborn screening.