Experiences of parents of children with cleft lip and/or cleft palate: a qualitative systematic review protocol.

Objective: This review will assess and synthesize the available qualitative evidence on the experiences of parents of children with cleft lip, cleft palate, or cleft lip and palate.

Introduction: Parents of children with cleft lip and/or palate often experience emotional concerns such as shock or denial upon learning of their child's condition. The parents may also experience challenges related to physical issues such as feeding difficulties, surgical procedures, and speech articulation disorders. By understanding these experiences, we aim to suggest potential resources or enhancements of care for these parents.

Eligibility criteria: We will consider all primary studies reporting on the experiences of biological parents of children under 18 years with cleft lip and/or palate. We will focus on qualitative research as well as mixed methods studies that incorporate qualitative data. Experiences in any context will be included, regardless of the parents' age, sex/gender, or type of cleft lip and/or palate.

Methods: We will search for published and unpublished studies across 5 databases and 1 website: MEDLINE (Ovid), CINAHL (EBSCOhost), PsycINFO (EBSCOhost), DANS-Easy, and ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global, and the American Cleft Palate Craniofacial Association. The reference lists of studies selected for critical appraisal will also be examined for additional relevant studies. There will be no restrictions on language or publication date. Two independent reviewers will screen studies for inclusion, assess methodological quality using the JBI critical appraisal checklist, extract data, and perform meta-aggregation. Confidence in the synthesized findings will be assessed according to the ConQual approach.

Review registration: PROSPERO CRD42024584995.