Key result
Fetal cardiac consultation is linked to a ~6-point reduction in maternal anxiety scores.
Why the study?
Although fetal echocardiography has transformed prenatal cardiac diagnosis, the emotional burden and maternal anxiety surrounding referral and evaluation remain poorly characterized.
Does fetal cardiac evaluation and consultation reduce maternal anxiety symptoms in pregnant women referred for fetal echocardiography?
Cohort (n=117)
No
Does fetal cardiac evaluation and consultation reduce maternal anxiety symptoms in pregnant women referred for fetal echocardiography?
Over 80% of pregnant women referred for fetal cardiac evaluation experience pre-procedural anxiety—particularly those with prior pregnancy loss—which decreases by 40.1% immediately following fetal echocardiography and expert cardiologist consultation regardless of whether a cardiac abnormality is detected.
Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
May support anxiety relief after fetal cardiac consultation in anxious pregnant women; leaves open causality and generalizability pending randomized trials.
Fetal echocardiography has transformed prenatal cardiac diagnosis, yet the emotional burden of referral and evaluation remains poorly characterized. We aimed to quantify maternal anxiety before and after fetal cardiac evaluation (FCE), identify clinical predictors of anxiety, and assess whether anxiety changes following evaluation and consultation regardless of outcome. In this prospective cohort study, 117 pregnant women undergoing initial or follow-up FCE completed pre- and post-consultation assessments using a seven-item symptom inventory adapted from the Stanford Acute Stress Reaction Questionnaire (SASRQ; score range 7-42). Participants were classified as anxious or non-anxious by direct self-report. Scores were compared with paired t-tests; exploratory multivariable models adjusted for clinical, demographic, and referral covariates, including prior pregnancy loss, psychiatric history, and diagnostic outcome. 80% of participants (94/117) reported anxiety about the FCE before evaluation; prior pregnancy loss was associated with anxious state (p = 0.049). Following FCE and consultation, mean symptom scores in the anxious group fell from 15.07 to 9.03, a 6.04-point (40.1%) reduction (p < 0.001), with reductions across symptom domains regardless of diagnostic outcome. Scores in the non-anxious group did not change significantly (8.48 to 7.87; p = 0.27). Most women referred for FCE report anxiety before evaluation. FCE with consultation was associated with a substantial reduction in anxiety symptoms in these women, irrespective of whether a cardiac abnormality was found. Although the uncontrolled pre-post design cannot establish causation, these findings suggest that diagnostic clarity and expert consultation may themselves be anxiety-reducing and support evaluation of integrated psychosocial care models in fetal cardiology.
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Bogarapu et al. (2026) conducted a cohort in Maternal anxiety surrounding fetal cardiac evaluation (FCE) (n=117). Fetal cardiac evaluation (FCE) with fetal cardiologist consultation vs. Pre-evaluation baseline (and comparison between self-reported anxious vs. non-anxious groups) was evaluated on Total anxiety symptom score (7-item inventory adapted from SASRQ, score range 7-42) before vs. after FCE in the anxious group (MD -6.04, 95% CI -7.38 to -4.71, p=<0.001). Fetal cardiac evaluation with consultation reduced maternal anxiety symptom scores by 6.04 points (40.1%, p < 0.001) among anxious pregnant women, regardless of diagnostic outcome.
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