When expecting the birth of a child, a couple is consumed with happiness, positive excitement, curiosity and joy. In their minds, the couple makes an ideal image of their unborn child. They do not expect that something could go wrong, especially if the pregnancy is normal and without complications. When a child with special needs is born, the ideal image of a child no longer exists. In theory, and according to the experiences of workers dealing with couples who have children with special needs, the couples are confronted with the most painful feelings. At first, the shock appears, followed by various unpleasant feelings, like sadness, anger and anxiety. This Masters Thesis stresses the feelings with which the parents of a child with special needs are confronted with, the stress in the family, when the child with special needs is born, and focuses on how the parents’ relationship functions. By the help of phenomenological method, the author in the semi-structured interviews gains insight into what parents are going through when a child with special needs is born, how the change affects the relationship between parents, how the parents accepted the special needs of the child and what helped them the most. The author obtained answers to two main questions: “What do couples go through, when an image of an ideal child no longer exists?” and “How is this experience affecting their relationship?” with the help of seven couples, who are parents of a child with special needs. The results show that the phase of shock appears first. Some of the participants talk about anger, sadness, anxiety, disappointment and insecurity, while some of them reported that they were thrown into the situation and they did not have time to think of anything else. To all of them, the support of the partner meant a lot in this difficult situation. With a partner by their side, being confronted with the special needs of their child was easier. It is hard to define; what does the acceptance of special needs of a child mean, but the results of the research show that it takes time to accept the aforementioned, and it depends on each individual separately. Some of them accepted the special needs of a child instantly, some of them needed more time, even up to three years. However, all of them said that the special needs of your child can never be entirely accepted. As reasons why they accepted the special needs easier, the parents stated: progress of the child, the birth of the next child, cooperation, stability of the relationship and acceptance of the situation that they are in
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