When genetics affects a pregnancy or a child, this counselor helps families understand it — explaining test results, risks, and options with clarity and care during some of life's most fraught moments. Where genetics meets a family's hardest choices.
Families come in frightened, and the work mixes assessing risk, explaining results, and counseling families through prenatal and pediatric genetics. You sit between dense science and frightened parents, and much of the skill is making genetics understandable and bearable. Documentation and care coordination round it out.
Settings range from prenatal clinics, children's hospitals, or specialty centers, with emotionally heavy caseloads. For many, the hard part can be carrying families' fear while staying clear and neutral. The field moves fast as testing expands, and demand is strong, but the emotional weight is real.
Strong counselors here tend to be scientifically grounded, compassionate, and steady under hard news. Trade-offs can include emotional weight and outcomes you can't change. For someone who loves genetics and walking with families through their hardest moments, the work can be uncommonly meaningful — a diagnosis before birth, met with care.
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Where this role sits in the broader career landscape — and where it can take you.
It's your career.
Take the wheel.
Roles like this one sit within a broader occupational category. The numbers below reflect that full landscape — helpful for context, but your specific experience will depend on level, specialty, and where you work.
Roles with similar work and overlapping career paths
View all Healthcare roles →When genetics affects a pregnancy or a child, this counselor helps families understand it — explaining test results, risks, and options with clarity and care during some of life's most fraught moments. Where genetics meets a family's hardest choices.
Median pay for a Prenatal and Pediatric Genetic Counselor is about $99K nationally, with the field ranging roughly from $79K to $138K depending on experience, employer, and metro (BLS).
Core skills for this role include Reading Comprehension, Active Listening, Complex Problem Solving, Speaking, and Social Perceptiveness.
Most people in this role hold a master's degree.
Employment in this field is projected to grow about 9.3% through 2034, with roughly 3,510 people working in it today (BLS).
Closely related roles include Health and Wellness Director, Chromosomal Disorders Counselor, and Genetic Counselor.
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