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dc.contributor.authorLou, Stina
dc.contributor.authorP. Nielsen, Camilla
dc.contributor.authorHvidman, Lone
dc.contributor.authorPetersen, Olav Bjørn
dc.contributor.authorRisør, Mette Bech
dc.date.accessioned2017-01-31T10:09:49Z
dc.date.available2017-01-31T10:09:49Z
dc.date.issued2016-10-21
dc.description.abstract<b>Background: </b>It is well documented that pregnant women experience increased worry and uncertainty following a high-risk prenatal screening result. While waiting for diagnostic results this worry continues to linger. It has been suggested that high-risk women put the pregnancy mentally ‘on hold’ during this period, however, not enough is known about how high-risk women and their partners cope while waiting for diagnostic results. The aim of this study was to identify the strategies employed to cope with worry and uncertainty.<br> <b>Methods:</b> Qualitative, semi-structured interviews with 16 high-risk couples who underwent diagnostic testing. The couples were recruited at a university hospital fetal medicine unit in Denmark. Data were analysed using thematic analysis.<br> <b>Results:</b> All couples reported feeling worried and sad upon receiving a high-risk screening result. While waiting for diagnostic results, the couples focused on coming to their own understanding of the situation and employed both social withdrawal and social engagement as strategies to prevent worry from escalating. Additionally, couples used gratitude, reassuring reasoning and selective memory as means to maintain hopes for a good outcome. Discussions about what to do in case of an abnormal test result were notably absent in the accounts of waiting. This bracketing of the potential abnormal result allowed the couples to hold on to a ‘normal’ pregnancy and to employ an ‘innocent-till-proven-guilty’ approach to their worries about the fetus’s health. None of the interviewed couples regretted having prenatal screening and all of them expected to have prenatal screening in a future pregnancy.<br> <b>Conclusions:</b> The couples in this study did not put the pregnancy mentally ‘on hold’. Worry and uncertainty must be understood as managed through a diverse range of practical and emotional strategies that change and overlap in the process of waiting. Clinicians may support appropriate ways of coping with worry and waiting through empathetic and empowering clinical communication. In addition to providing adequate information and presenting options available, clinicians may support high-risk women/couples by encouraging them to seek their own personal understandings and management strategies as a way to gain some control in an uncertain situation.en_US
dc.descriptionThis is an open access article distributed under the terms of the <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"> Creative Commons Attribution License</a>, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. <br> This article is also available via DOI:<a href="http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1186/s12884-016-1114-6"> 10.1186/s12884-016-1114-6</a>en_US
dc.identifier.citationLou S, P. Nielsen, Hvidman L, Petersen OB, Risør MB. Coping with worry while waiting for diagnostic results: a qualitative study of the experiences of pregnant couples following a high-risk prenatal screening result. BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth. 2016;16:321:1-8en_US
dc.identifier.cristinIDFRIDAID 1393540
dc.identifier.doi10.1186/s12884-016-1114-6
dc.identifier.issn1471-2393
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10037/10247
dc.language.isoengen_US
dc.publisherDove Medical Pressen_US
dc.relation.journalBMC Pregnancy and Childbirth
dc.rights.accessRightsopenAccessen_US
dc.subjectPregnancyen_US
dc.subjectPrenatal careen_US
dc.subjectFirst trimester screeningen_US
dc.subjectCopingen_US
dc.subjectDenmarken_US
dc.subject, Qualitativeen_US
dc.subjectVDP::Medisinske Fag: 700::Klinisk medisinske fag: 750::Allmennmedisin: 751en_US
dc.subjectVDP::Medical disciplines: 700::Clinical medical disciplines: 750::Family practice: 751en_US
dc.titleCoping with worry while waiting for diagnostic results: a qualitative study of the experiences of pregnant couples following a high-risk prenatal screening resulten_US
dc.typeJournal articleen_US
dc.typeTidsskriftartikkelen_US
dc.typePeer revieweden_US


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