In a context of increasing international dialogue around the appropriate means and ends of newborn screening programmes, it is critical to explore the perspectives of those directly impacted by such screening. This meta-ethnography uses a systematic review process to identify qualitative studies that focus on parents' experiences of newborn screening published in English-language academic journals from 2000 to 2019 (n = 36). The included studies represent a range of moments, outcomes, and conditions that illuminate discrete elements of the newborn screening journey. We draw on these varied studies to construct a diagram of possible newborn screening pathways and through so-doing identify a critical window of time between the signalling of a positive newborn screen and the end of the screening process. During this critical window of time, families navigate complex emotional reactions, information, and decisions. From an in-depth analysis of this data, we develop the concept of “absorptive capacity” as a lens through which to understand parents' responses to new and emerging information. Alongside this, we identify how the “concertinaing of time” – the various ways that parents experience the expansion and compression of time throughout and beyond the screening pathway – affects their absorptive capacities. This study underscores the need to move away from viewing newborn screening as a discrete series of clinical events and instead understand it as a process that can have far-reaching implications across time, space, and family groups. Using this understanding of screening as a starting point, we make recommendations to facilitate communication and support for screened families, including the antenatal provision of information to parents and accommodations for the fluctuations in parents’ absorptive capacities across the screening trajectory.

在围绕新生儿筛查计划的适当手段和目的的国际对话日益增多的背景下，探索直接受此类筛查影响的人的观点至关重要。这种元人种学采用系统审查流程来识别定性研究，这些研究重点关注 2000 年至 2019 年英语学术期刊上发表的父母新生儿筛查经历 (n = 36)。纳入的研究代表了一系列时刻、结果和条件，阐明了新生儿筛查过程中的离散要素。我们利用这些不同的研究来构建可能的新生儿筛查途径图，并通过这样做确定新生儿筛查阳性信号和筛查过程结束之间的关键时间窗口。在这个关键的时间窗口，家庭需要应对复杂的情绪反应、信息和决定。通过对这些数据的深入分析，我们提出了“吸收能力”的概念，作为了解父母对新信息和新兴信息的反应的镜头。除此之外，我们还确定了“时间的协调”——父母在整个筛查过程中和之外体验时间扩展和压缩的各种方式——如何影响他们的吸收能力。这项研究强调，需要不再将新生儿筛查视为一系列离散的临床事件，而是将其理解为一个可以在时间、空间和家庭群体中产生深远影响的过程。以这种对筛查的理解为起点，我们提出建议，以促进对筛查家庭的沟通和支持，包括在产前向父母提供信息，并适应父母在整个筛查过程中吸收能力的波动。