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Research Article Volume 8 Issue 5
Assessment of quality of counselling for down syndrome in Sudan
Osama Hafiz El Shazali,1 
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Hala Abdullahi,2 Hafiz El Shazali Osman1
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1Department of Paediatrics, University of Khartoum, Sudan
2Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Khartoum, Sudan
Correspondence: Osama Hafiz El Shazali, Department of Paediatrics, University of Khartoum, Sudan
Received: April 11, 2018 | Published: October 10, 2018
Citation: Shazali OHE, Abdullahi H, Osman HES. Assessment of quality of counselling for down syndrome in Sudan. J Pediatr Neonatal Care. 2018;8(5):232-234. DOI: 10.15406/jpnc.2018.08.00347
Abstrat
Aim: The aim of the study was to assess the quality of the counselling for the Down syndrome that the parents received at the time of the diagnosis.
Method: Parents of infants with a diagnosis of Down syndrome were interviewed about the counselling received at the time of the diagnosis.
Results: During the study period 109 infants with a diagnosis of Down syndrome were seen.
40 out of the 109 parents (36.7%) did not receive any counselling for Down syndrome, 69(63.3%) were counselled about Down syndrome but 22 out of them (33.9%) felt that the counselling was not good enough.
Conclusion: The training of doctors in counselling and in breaking bad news need to be improved.
Keywords: Sudan, down syndrome (DS), counselling
Introduction
Down syndrome (DS) is the most common chromosomal malformation affecting about 1:700 life born. The American College of Obstetrics and Genecology (ACOG) and the American College of Medical Genetics now recommends that all pregnant women, regardless of age, be offered prenatal testing for DS.1–3 Although this guidelines exist in the western world but more than 85% of mothers who have children with DS, first received the diagnosis postnatal.4,5 We do not have figures for the Sudan, but from our own experience more than 95% receive the diagnosis postnatally. Breaking bad news is one of the most important areas that are facing doctors on regular basis and it is one of the most difficult areas for the doctors to deal with, but unfortunately doctors do not receive adequate formal training in breaking bad news. Bad news may be defined as “any information which adversely and seriously affects an individual's view of his or her future.”6,7 Communicating bad news can be very difficult to the informer even to the most experienced physician, and can be devastating experience to the parents, this experience could influence the way they react or accept the child illness in the long run. Skotko had shown “that the parents reported that being frightened or anxious after learning the diagnosis, and very few rated the overall experien