Episode 5: When Unexpected News Changes Everything: Prenatal Diagnosis, Threat, and the Support Gap — with Dr Pieta Shakes

Receiving unexpected news about your developing baby during pregnancy can be one of the most profound and destabilising experiences a person goes through. Yet our healthcare systems are largely set up to deliver the test — not to support what comes after.In this episode, A/Prof Alison Archibald speaks with Pieta Shakes — credentialed mental health nurse, researcher at James Cook University, and founder of Through the Unexpected — about what parents experience when they receive unexpected news from prenatal testing, and why current models of care often fall short.Drawing on her own lived experience of receiving unexpected information about her baby's development at 31 weeks and her PhD research into psychosocial outcomes, Pieta unpacks the real impact of prenatal diagnosis — including the threat response it can trigger, the isolation, the disruption to identity and attachment, and the reality that many parents carry these impacts for years without adequate support.Together they explore:Why "shock" doesn't capture what's really happening — and what the threat response actually looks likeThe diversity of experiences and why there's no single way people respond to this newsHow medicalisation can sometimes overshadow the human experience for parentsThe growing gap between funded testing and funded support in AustraliaWhat good models of care could look like — accessible, flexible, and available over timeWhat practitioners can do right now to create safer spacesThis episode is for genetic counsellors, obstetricians, midwives, GPs, mental health professionals, and anyone working in prenatal or reproductive care. It's also for parents and families who have been through this experience and want to feel seen and understood.Guest: Dr Pieta Shakes — Founder, Through the Unexpected (throughtheunexpected.com) | Credentialed Mental Health Nurse | Teaching & Research Academic, James Cook UniversityGenoCare: genocare.com.au