摘要

Adoption of Chinese children with cleft lip and palate (CLP) has become increasingly more common in Sweden. The aim of this study was to examine parents%26apos; experience when adopting a child with CLP. Since 2008, 34 adopted children with CLP have been treated in our department. A questionnaire was sent to 33 of the families and 30 of them answered (91%). The parents had queued from 1 month to 8 years before they were offered a child. Eighteen families reported that they received information on CLP from the adoption agency and 87% contacted the department of plastic surgery for additional information. In 15 cases (45%) previously unknown medical conditions or birth defects other than CLP were discovered in Sweden. Most parents (67%) had been informed before the adoption that their child could be a carrier of resistant bacteria, but not all had received enough information to grasp what it implies to be a carrier. The great majority of the families did not feel that the early hospitalisation for the first operation had a negative impact on the attachment between them and their adopted child. They thought that the aesthetic and functional results of the operations were %26quot;better than expected%26quot;. Seventeen families stated that people react to the cleft and four of them think that the reactions are a problem. Presumptive adoptive parents should be informed that the child might have unsuspected medical conditions, resistant bacteria, what carriage implies, and that needed treatment and long-term results are not predictable.

  • 出版日期2013-2