An exploration of co-parenting in the context of caring for a child prenatally diagnosed and born with a complex health condition.
Anne Chevalier McKechnie, Jamie Rogstad, Katherine M Martin and 1 others
PMID 28792608WHAT IT FOUND
Eight couples facing a foetal anomaly diagnosis described becoming parents before birth and working together through emotional support, joint decisions and information sharing; later they balanced normal routines with health monitoring.
Key findings
01Most parents described taking on parenting before birth after a foetal anomaly diagnosis, and joint health decisions made them see themselves as parenting together.
02Some parents developed ongoing, practiced emotional support after birth, while others focused more on their own emotions.
03After birth, couples worked to keep life as normal as possible, and some managed information sharing by embedding it in routine communication.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Eight couples, all white and heterosexual, were self-selected and may have had positive co-parenting communication. The study did not guarantee saturation, and conjoint interviews may have kept some feelings hidden. No intervention or outcome was tested, so the findings describe parents' experiences rather than effects. Data on length of committed relationship were not collected.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest. The supplied text does not report funding.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the positive teamwork descriptions as proof that co-parenting support improves child or parent outcomes. This was a small qualitative study of eight self-selected couples and did not test an intervention or measure outcomes.