Pitt Pediatrics congratulates Kelly Harris, MD, for her manuscript publication in the Cambridge Core titled “Mapping parents’ journey following prenatal diagnosis of CHD: a qualitative study.”
The study done by Harris and team was to better understand parents’ accounts of their prenatal and postnatal experience after prenatal diagnosis of Congenital Heart Disease (CHD), particularly emotional processing and coping mechanisms, to identify strategies to improve support. The study included pregnant mothers and their support persons seen at the Fetal Cardiology Clinic at Vanderbilt Children’s hospital from May to August 2019 for probable complex CHD.
Harris and team’s findings stated that prenatally, parents sought out to maintain hope while understanding the diagnosis while postnatally, with a confirmation of their diagnosis, their sense of control expanded and desired more active engagement in clinical decision making. These results help clinicians understand the critical impact of how parents conceptualize hope in relation to diagnosis and how that may change over time. The shift from hope by focusing on positivity to active engagement gives clinicians an idea on how to provide different support to patients.