Genetic Inheritance for the Pregnancy Pathway: A Practical Guide for Clinicians
Explore genetics and genomics in maternity healthcare and apply principles to provide high quality care.
Duration
2 weeksWeekly study
3 hoursLanguages
English, Italiano, Español, Français, PortuguêsEnglish, Italiano, Español
Genetic Inheritance for the Pregnancy Pathway: A Practical Guide for Clinicians
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Discover different types of genetic inheritance and understand genomic testing
Genomics is an ever-developing area of healthcare, and genetic tests are being mainstreamed, becoming more accessible than ever before. That’s why it’s important for professionals providing primary and secondary care to understand genetic inheritance so they can provide appropriate quality of care to their patients.
On this two-week course, you’ll learn about the different types of genetic inheritance, delving deeper into Mendelian inheritance and its potential deviations. There will be a focus on genomics in the pregnancy pathway, providing a practical guide for midwives and other practitioners delivering maternity care.
Develop practical skills for taking patient history and drawing pedigrees
An important part of recognising inherited disorders is in taking family histories and drawing family trees. You’ll learn key principles for taking family and patient history, then use those skills to gain practical experience in drawing pedigrees.
Recognise genomic conditions in prenatal and antenatal development
Using case examples, you’ll look at how you can improve care pathways and referrals, specifically throughout pregnancy care. You’ll also have the opportunity to discuss current ethical issues in genetic testing, such as the ethical implications of offering genetic testing, and how genetic testing could be mainstreamed into maternity services.
Learn from experts in the field of genomics
With clinicians at the forefront of providing clinical genomic services, The South East Genomic Medicines Service Alliance (GMSA) has specialist expertise and understanding in genomics, in particular workforce training and education.
Syllabus
Week 1
The principles of genetic inheritance in healthcare
Welcome to the course
In these first few steps, you will be introduced to the course and the educators and obtain an overview of the learning objectives and content to be covered in the first week.
Patterns of inheritance Part 1
The first part of the week will explore autosomal dominant and recessive patterns of inheritance. We have provided details of some conditions you may recognise in practice.
Patterns of inheritance Part 2
In the second part of the week, we look at sex linked inheritance, x-linked conditions, and chromosome rearrangement inheritance.
Summary of the week
The final part of the week is to consolidate and reflect on learning.
Week 2
The practicalities of taking a family history and recognising deviations
The principles of pedigree drawing
In these first steps of the week, we are going to introduce you to the art of history taking and drawing a pedigree through different activities.
Additional considerations to genetic inheritance and testing
Genetic inheritance does not always follow the simple principles described in week one. You will learn more about the deviations from the standard principles as well as the ethical, social and legal issues of genetic testing.
Standardising care
In this section, we will cover how to get the best out of a consultation. We will explore both the clinician and patient views.
Summary
With conversations about mainstreaming genomics already in the air, tell us what you think as we come to the end of the course.
Learning on this course
On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.
What will you achieve?
By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...
- Describe dominant, recessive, x-linked and complex inheritance
- Identify examples of genomic conditions, including the ones they are most likely to encounter in antenatal care
- Demonstrate the ability to draw a pedigree
- Apply the principles of pedigree drawing to recognise modes of inheritance
- Identify deviations from mendelian inheritance
- Evaluate further individual learning needs to provide high quality care
Who is the course for?
This course is primarily designed for midwives. It may also be of interest to those involved in the pregnancy pathway such as primary care physicians, nurses, and health visitors, as well as medical and healthcare undergraduates.
While the course will generally assume knowledge appropriate to healthcare professionals, anyone interested in assessing their own family genetic history may find the course useful.
This course is part of a partnership between City St George’s, University of London and FutureLearn that is coming to an end. As a result, this course will retire on 24 August 2026.
Please note that the course content, data and materials are no longer being actively updated and may not reflect the most recent developments in this subject area.
We encourage you to enrol on course before the retirement date if you wish to take part.
Who will you learn with?
I am a midwife working at St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
My main interests are in genomics and fetal medicine.
I have recently completed a MSc in Genomic medicine (2021).
I am a Principal Genetic Counsellor based at St George's Hospital .
I work with patients in cardiac, prenatal, general and cancer genetics and have a special interest in education and training
I am a General and Prenatal Genetic Counsellor at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust.
I trained as a genetic counsellor via the Scientist Training Programme at Great Ormond Street Hospital.
Who developed the course?
City St George's, University of London (formerly St George's)
City St George’s, University of London (formerly St George’s) School of Health and Medical Sciences is a leading provider of education in the fields of healthcare, medicine and psychology.
Learning on FutureLearn
Your learning, your rules
- Courses are split into weeks, activities, and steps to help you keep track of your learning
- Learn through a mix of bite-sized videos, long- and short-form articles, audio, and practical activities
- Stay motivated by using the Progress page to keep track of your step completion and assessment scores
Join a global classroom
- Experience the power of social learning, and get inspired by an international network of learners
- Share ideas with your peers and course educators on every step of the course
- Join the conversation by reading, @ing, liking, bookmarking, and replying to comments from others
Map your progress
- As you work through the course, use notifications and the Progress page to guide your learning
- Whenever you’re ready, mark each step as complete, you’re in control
- Complete 90% of course steps and all of the assessments to earn your certificate
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