Genetic Counseling
Often, women see a genetic counselor before having an ultrasound examination and other services at our center. Genetic counselors are health professionals with specialized graduate degrees and experience in the areas of medical genetics and counseling.
They work as members of a health care team with the geneticist, perinatologist and others, providing information and support to families who have members with birth defects or genetic disorders and to families who may be at risk for a variety of inherited conditions. They identify families at risk, investigate the problem present in the family, interpret information about the disorder, analyze inheritance patterns and risks of recurrence and review available options with the family.
Genetic counselors frequently speak with patients about complex scientific and emotional topics. Usually the issues involve genetic conditions or birth defects or possibilities of those things occurring. The reason you are seeing the counselor and the perinatologist will usually be the main subject of counseling. For example, a common reason to come to our center is for advanced maternal age, defined as being 35 years old or older at the time the baby is expected. Often, the genetic counselor acts as an interpreter for the medical information and as a support person if the information turns out to be stressful.
Your genetic counselor asks extensive questions about your family history, as this is the way we understand inheritance patterns. It might be helpful for you to use the opportunity of a pending genetic counseling visit to research the health and medical conditions of extended relatives. Genetic counselors also provide supportive counseling to families, serve as patient advocates and refer individuals and families to support services.
When the patient has a very complex problem, such as an abnormal ultrasound result, or when a patient needs to be medically evaluated because she has a suspected genetic disorder herself, a clinical geneticist will see the patient. A clinical geneticist is a doctor who specializes in genetics. The geneticist also supervises the genetic counselors and reviews the counseling they provide for quality assurance.
