TY - JOUR
T1 - Parents' perspectives on decision making after antenatal diagnosis of congenital heart disease
AU - Rempel, Gwen R.
AU - Cender, Loryle M.
AU - Lynam, M. Judith
AU - Sandor, George G.
AU - Farquharson, Duncan
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was funded by a British Columbia Children's Hospital Miracle Telethon New Research Award and supported by the Perinatal Clinical Research Centre of the University of Alberta. Thanks to the parents who participated in this research, and to Sharon Connaughty, Tam Donnelly, and Rhonda Harris for their assistance.
PY - 2004
Y1 - 2004
N2 - Objective: To discover and describe how prospective parents make decisions when they learn of their baby's congenital heart disease (CHD) during pregnancy, and to provide professionals with direction for their interactions with these families. Design and method: Qualitative analysis informed by symbolic interactionism. Setting: A tertiary care women's health center that provided referral services for a province with a population of 4 million. Participants: Mothers and fathers of 19 babies with antenatally diagnosed CHD participated in interviews during pregnancy and after the birth of their baby. Thirty-four interviews were analyzed for common themes and distinguishing characteristics of antenatal decision making. Results: Parents approached their antenatal decisions regarding further testing and continuation of the pregnancy as their first parenting decisions. They made their decisions with differing degrees of apparent ease or deliberation, and some parents more readily sought the opinion of professionals. The offered opinions offended some parents, even though the professionals may have intended the information as descriptive of options, not suggestive of a particular decision. Conclusion: Although advances in technology have enabled diagnosis of CHD antenatally, health care professionals, including nurses, must elicit each parent's particular perspective, be cognizant of their professional influence, and actively support parents from the time of the antenatal diagnosis.
AB - Objective: To discover and describe how prospective parents make decisions when they learn of their baby's congenital heart disease (CHD) during pregnancy, and to provide professionals with direction for their interactions with these families. Design and method: Qualitative analysis informed by symbolic interactionism. Setting: A tertiary care women's health center that provided referral services for a province with a population of 4 million. Participants: Mothers and fathers of 19 babies with antenatally diagnosed CHD participated in interviews during pregnancy and after the birth of their baby. Thirty-four interviews were analyzed for common themes and distinguishing characteristics of antenatal decision making. Results: Parents approached their antenatal decisions regarding further testing and continuation of the pregnancy as their first parenting decisions. They made their decisions with differing degrees of apparent ease or deliberation, and some parents more readily sought the opinion of professionals. The offered opinions offended some parents, even though the professionals may have intended the information as descriptive of options, not suggestive of a particular decision. Conclusion: Although advances in technology have enabled diagnosis of CHD antenatally, health care professionals, including nurses, must elicit each parent's particular perspective, be cognizant of their professional influence, and actively support parents from the time of the antenatal diagnosis.
KW - Antenatal diagnosis
KW - Congenital heart disease
KW - Decision making
KW - Fetal cardiology
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=21244432724&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/0884217503261092
DO - 10.1177/0884217503261092
M3 - Journal Article
C2 - 14971554
AN - SCOPUS:21244432724
SN - 0884-2175
VL - 33
SP - 64
EP - 70
JO - Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, & Neonatal Nursing
JF - Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, & Neonatal Nursing
IS - 1
ER -