Abstract
Semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven mothers who had recently given birth to infants with a cleft lip and palate to identify the principal factors causing them maternal stress and ways to alleviate this stress when rearing their children and getting them treated. Analysis of the interview transcripts led to several findings, as summarized below.
(1) We identified three main categories of maternal distress: postpartum distress, child-rearing distress, and treatment distress. These categories were then broken down into nine subcategories: a sense that something wrong had happened, feeling of not being allowed to provide sufficient early mother-infant contact, feeling of not receiving sufficient information about their child's condition, sadness that their child was segregated from other children, sense of remorse for giving birth to a child with a defect, worried that the child would attract attention when outdoors, anxiety about not being able to breastfeed well, anxiety over cleft-related surgery, and feeling of sadness for infant undergoing cleft treatment.
(2) We then identified ways to alleviate this stress from the transcripts and grouped them into four categories: early mother-infant physical contact, working closely with cleft medical specialists, recalling previous experiences of raising children, and peer support. These were further grouped into eight subcategories: early mother-infant physical contact, clear explanations from cleft specialists, assurance of full recovery, assurance of ability to breastfeed, smooth weaning progression, knowing that the infant is developing well, meeting other children with cleft condition, and support from other mothers while in the hospital.
These findings suggest the best ways that medical professionals can provide psychological support and encouragement to new mothers with cleft lip/palate infants are: (1) to put the mother in contact with specialized cleft medical personnel as soon as possible, to fully explain the nature of the cleft condition early on, and to make sure the infant is getting the proper treatment; and (2) to make sure the mother understands the significance of peer contact and to provide a forum early on where mothers can exchange information and provide mutual support.
