Parental adjustment to cleft lip and palate anomaly: a preliminary study

Abstract

Background: Cleft lip/palate is the commonest congenital craniofacial anomaly and the birth of a child with this anomaly can be devastating to the parents. This study aimed to describe the early adjustment of parents to children with cleft lip/palate anomaly. Materials and methods: Inquiry into taking the baby out, taking photographs, parental attitude to surgery, decision on having more children, parental relationship and feeding difficulty was made among parents/caregivers of infants with cleft lip/palate anomaly who were less than 6 months of age in the University College Hospital, Ibadan. Frequencies and percentages of variables were reported. Chi square test was used to test associations at 5% level of significance. Results: Parents of 34 infants participated in the study. There were 19 females and 15 males. The mean (+S.D.) age of the infant was 2.19 (1.88) months. There was a statistical significance between ‘type of cleft’ and ‘taking of photographs’ (p=0.011) as well as ‘taking the baby out’ (p=0.012) but there was no statistical significance between the type of cleft and parental adjustment as well as feeding difficulties. Conclusion: Most parents of children with cleft lip/palate anomaly avoided taking pictures of their children and did not readily take them out. However, the type of cleft lip/palate did not seem to affect how the parents adjusted to their children and the difficulty they experienced in feeding them. Keywords: cleft lip and palate, parental adjustment Nigerian Journal of Plastic Surgery Vol. 9, No 2, September 2013