God-sent ordeals and their discontents: Ultra-orthodox Jewish women negotiate prenatal testing

► Haredi women spend much of their married lives pregnant and view childbearing as a gendered route of devotion. ► Prenatal diagnosis (PND) puts Haredi women at risk of being tested by God; failing the test signaled falling spiritually short of God's challenge. ► Women may be exposed as "cowards" uncertain of God's plan, positioned low in a collective grading system of maternal piety. ► PND made Haredi women terrified of becoming frightened, subjecting each and every pregnancy to inevitable struggles. ► Our study contributes evidence that refusing PND is not equivalent to resisting the medicalization of pregnancy.