Publication
Hope pluralism in antenatal palliative care
Bertaud S, Suleman M, Wilkinson D · Journal of Medical Ethics: Journal of the Institute of Medical Ethics · 2025
When parents face the distressing news during pregnancy that their baby is affected by a serious medical condition that will likely lead to the baby’s death before or soon after birth, they experience a range of complex emotions. Perhaps paradoxically, one common response is that of hope. Navigating such hope in antenatal interactions with parents can be difficult for healthcare professionals. That can stem from a desire to accurately communicate prognostic information and a fear of conveying ’false hope’ to families. In this paper, we examine the role that hope plays when parents and healthcare professionals are grappling with a confirmed antenatal diagnosis of a life-limiting condition. We assess what it means to hope in this context and consider the different types of hopes held by both parents and healthcare professionals as well as why hopeful thinking might be helpful and not harmful. We propose ’hope pluralism’ as a concept that might allow healthcare professionals to accommodate a multitude of parental and professional hopes, even where these conflict. Finally, we offer some practical suggestions for how professionals should evaluate and respond to hope in situations that might (from the outside) appear hopeless. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
Synced from the TRENDS in Pediatric Palliative Care Zotero library, curated by The Siden Research Team. ICPCN does not host or verify the full text.