Psychological aspects of congenital malformations' prenatal diagnosis

Recent development of medicine allows early intervention during pregnancy or just after delivery in many types of detected congenital malformations. Frequently these tests are followed by significant psychological problems of parents experiencing the unfavourable diagnosis. They have to face a necessity of making a dramatic decision to continue their pregnancy and prepare themselves to living with a handicapped child or to terminate. The aim of conducted research was to recognize experiences, ways of coping and subjectively perceived support of women (21, at the average age of 27), who were found out to be expecting a child with congenital malformation. The pregnant patients, from different medical centres in Poland, were referred to the Department for Diagnosis and Prevention of Congenital Malformations at the Research Institute Polish Mother’s Memorial Hospital in Łódź for the final diagnosis and to have further medical treatment planned. The applied research methods were: psychological conversation and the questionnaire prepared especially for that purpose. The main aim of research is to find principles of psychological intervention and the role of psychologist in the multidisciplinary medical team taking care of pregnant woman and child with congenital malformation