Prenatal Counseling on Prenatal Diagnosis of Cleft Lip and/or Cleft Palate at Tokyo Dental College Ichikawa General Hospital.

Remarkable technological advances have been made in the field of medicine in recent years, one result of which is that a prenatal diagnosis of cleft lip and/or cleft palate (CL/P) is now possible. In this situation, it is extremely important to provide the parents with mental care from the moment they are informed. Here, we describe cases of CL/P treated at our hospital and how such a diagnosis and prenatal counseling are handled. A survey was carried out on 4 cases seen at our department between April 2013 and March 2014. Patients are referred to our department from local or our own obstetrics clinics on a prenatal diagnosis of CL/P based on findings from ultrasonography. If the case is a referral from outside, the patient will first be seen at our own obstetrics department. Our department may then be subsequently requested to provide the parents with prenatal counseling. Effort is made to reassure the parents that postnatal support will be provided, right from the start. Next, the multidisciplinary nature of the treatment process is explained. However, only the essential outline is given at first so as to avoid inducing unnecessary anxiety. A response is also given to any questions the parents may have. Our experience of giving such care leads us to believe that improvements are required in the way that explanations and assistance are provided. The number of cases in which prenatal counseling is required is expected to increase in future.