[Coping behavior and supplying medical information--a study of mothers having delivered a child with a lip-jaw-palate cleft].

To be delivered of a child with cleft lip and palate is an extreme psychic stress factor for the mother. In coping with this, she is left to the support of the caring medical staff. Therefore, the aim of the present study was 1. to ascertain, to what extent mothers of children with cleft lip and palate are given information on the malformation, and receive emotional support by the medical staff; and 2. to determine the effect such experiences have on their ability to cope. For this purpose we developed a special questionnaire, which was completed by 154 mothers of such children. Retrospectively, a relevant part of them criticised not only the communication and the contents of information, but also the emotional support as deficient. A correlation between these determinants and largely insufficient coping was statistically confirmed. Our results should be taken into account in respect of the practical requirements when caring for mothers of children with a cleft lip and palate.