Breaking bad news during antenatal care

Abstract

One of the most sensitive moments during communication between the patient and the physician is the moment that the pysician gives bad news to his patient. If bad news is not given properly, the principle of being beneficial or harmless to the patient in terms of ethics is violated; inadequate information do harm the autonomy of the patient by negatively affecting the right decision of the patient. For this reason improperly breaking bad news to patient pose an ethical and legal problem. As a result of the recent advances in prenatal diagnostic tools, especially in ultrasound technology, it is now possible to diagnose many fetal and gynecologic pathologies during pregnancy. Therefore, the responsibility of breaking bad news about these pathologies has also been added to the clinical practice of antenatal care. Education about breaking bad news is generally not given during medical faculty or speciality and subspeciality training or it is provided in a limited way. Nowadays in which ethical concepts and individual rights are increasingly becoming important, it is not a correct approach breaking bad news for a diagnosed serious pathology without training in this regard. In this article, it was aimed to inform and raise awareness of related medical personnel, especially physicians, regarding the issue of breaking bad news during pregnancy.

Keywords

• Bad news
• antenatal care
• education
• ultrasonography
• communication