Introduction: Cleft lip with or without palate is one of the most common congenital anomalies in the world. Despite the frequency, information and knowledge about the anomaly are often unknown to parents, and when their child is diagnosed with cleft lip with or without palate, parents experience high levels of stress, as their dreams of a perfect child vanish. Medical staff plays a major role in the process of coping with the diagnosis and accepting the child by the whole family. Purpose: The purpose of the diploma thesis was to determine, how the diagnosis of cleft lip with or without palate affects parents' emotions for their yet unborn or already born child. I`d like to determine what difficulties and fears parents experience after the diagnosis is defined and what kind of help they need, to accept and adjust to the diagnosis, so that they can create a healthy family base for the best emotional and physical development of the child. Methods: The descriptive method was used to write our diploma thesis. Key findings, which described our research questions were collected using databases such as DiKul, COBISS, PubMed, Wiley Online Library and Science Direct, using keywords in Slovenian and mostly English language. Results: Six studies were included in the analysis. The psychological impact of the diagnosis of cleft lip with or without palate on parents that do not expect it is on a large scale. Parents often experience a feeling of guilt for the child's anomaly. The greatest fears that parents have are the severity of the cleft, care and feeding, surgeries, development, difficulties in socialization and stigmatization. To overcome initial fears and stress parents need individualized counseling to understand and accept the newly emerging situation, which helps them during the path. Supportive groups of parents that have children with similar clefts are of great help. Discussion and Conclusion: Transitioning to parenting, accepting the anomaly of the child and the preparation for care and treatment are the challenges a lot of parents face when the diagnosis of cleft lip with or without palate is confirmed. Despite great challenges, a lot of families with grown children born with a cleft describe many positive achievements and acknowledge that they have acquired as a result of the positive adaptation to the cleft.
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