Communicating a neonatal diagnosis of Down syndrome to parents

摘要

CLINICAL SCENARIO The Paediatric registrar has been called to the delivery suite by the midwife, who has delivered a baby with the characteristic facial features suggestive of Down syndrome (DS). The diagnosis of DS was noted postnatally. The registrar present wonders if there is a framework for the discussion of this potential diagnosis with the caregivers. STRUCTURED CLINICAL QUESTION In a postnatal diagnosis of DS (population), what specific aspects of communication should be routinely implemented (intervention) which when compared with current reported methods of communication (comparison) provide more support to families (outcome)? SEARCH STRATEGY PubMed and MEDLINE were searched in October 2020 for eligible articles regarding Down syndrome using the following search terms: ((Down(s) syndrome OR Trisomy 21 OR partial Trisomy 21 OR mosaicism) AND (neonate OR newborn OR infant OR baby) AND (parent(s) OR family OR families OR mother(s) OR father(s) AND (diagnosis OR perception OR experience OR acceptance)). Titles and abstracts were reviewed, and duplicates were removed.