Maternal anxiety and its correlation with pain experience during chorion villus sampling and amniocentesis

Invasive prenatal diagnostic procedures, such as chorion villus sampling (CVS) and amniocentesis (AC), are routinely performed to exclude or diagnose fetal chromosomal abnormalities. The aim of this study was to investigate anxiety-dependent pain experience during CVS and AC and the potential factors that increase anxiety and pain levels. During a 2-year period, women undergoing invasive procedures in three specialist centers were asked to participate in the study. Anxiety was evaluated before the procedure using the Spielberger State-Trait-Anxiety-Inventory, and pain was evaluated directly after the procedure using a verbal rating scale. Among the women, 348/480 (73%) underwent AC, while 131/480 (27%) underwent CVS. There was a significant correlation between state and trait anxiety (