Exploring parents' feelings about counseling in donor sperm treatment

Introduction: How do parents feel about psychosocial counseling during donor sperm treatment? Methods: We performed a qualitative study based on semi-structured in-depth interviews, conducted from July 2012 until August 2013, with 24 Dutch parents who had had children through donor sperm treatment b...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of psychosomatic obstetrics and gynaecology 2016-12, Vol.37 (4), p.156-163
Main Authors: Visser, Marja, Gerrits, Trudie, Kop, Femke, van der Veen, Fulco, Mochtar, Monique
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Child
Child, Preschool
Counseling
Counseling - standards
disclosure
donor sperm treatment
Female
follow-up
Follow-Up Studies
Humans
Infant
Insemination, Artificial, Heterologous - psychology
Male
Middle Aged
Parent-Child Relations
Parents - psychology
parents of donor-offspring
Qualitative Research
Truth Disclosure
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Summary:Introduction: How do parents feel about psychosocial counseling during donor sperm treatment? Methods: We performed a qualitative study based on semi-structured in-depth interviews, conducted from July 2012 until August 2013, with 24 Dutch parents who had had children through donor sperm treatment between 2000 and 2012. Results: During counseling, parents sometimes felt screened for their eligibility for parenthood rather than guided, and therefore felt discouraged about bringing up topics that were important for them. Parents of all family types would value extended psychological counseling before and after successful donor sperm treatment, that is in several stages of parenthood. Only after childbirth topics such as disclosure, fear of rejection of the social parent and future contact of the child with the sperm donor became more pertinent. Conclusions: Both before and after childbirth, parents of all family types would value expert advice on when and how to disclose. Psychosocial guidance should be offered separately from psychosocial screening for treatment eligibility and should be offered in several stages of parenthood.
ISSN:0167-482X
1743-8942
DOI:10.1080/0167482X.2016.1195806