BACKGROUND Information on the factors influencing parents' decision-making process following a lethal, life-limiting or severely debilitating prenatal diagnosis remains deficient. A comprehensive systematic review and meta-synthesis was conducted to explore the influencing factors for parents considering termination or continuation of pregnancy following identification of lethal, life-limiting or severely debilitating fetal abnormalities. METHODS Electronic searches of 13 databases were conducted. These searches were supplemented by hand-searching Google Scholar and bibliographies and citation tracing. Thomas and Harden's (2008) thematic synthesis method was used to synthesise data from identified studies. RESULTS Twenty-four papers were identified and reviewed, but two papers were removed following quality assessment. Three main themes were identified through systematic synthesis. Theme 1, entitled 'all life is precious', described parents' perception of the importance of the fetus' life, a fatalistic view of their situation alongside moral implications as well as the implications decisions would have on their own life, in consideration of previous life experiences. Theme 2 ('hope for a positive outcome') contained two sub-themes which considered the parent's own imagined future and the influence of other people's experiences. Finally, Theme 3 ('a life worth living') presented three sub-themes which may influence their parental decision-making: These described parental consideration of the quality of life for their unborn child, the possibility of waiting to try for another pregnancy, and their own responsibilities and commitments. CONCLUSION The first review to fully explore parental decision-making process following lethal, life-limiting, or severely debilitating prenatal diagnosis provided novel findings and insight into which factors influenced parents' decision-making process. This comprehensive and systematic review provides greater understanding of the factors influential on decision-making, such as hope, morality and potential implications on their own and other's quality of life, will enable professionals to facilitate supported decision-making, including greater knowledge of the variables likely to influence parental choices.

中文翻译：

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产前诊断后父母的决策是致命的、限制生命的或对未来的孩子和家庭有长期影响：定性文献的荟萃。

背景 在致命的、限制生命的或严重使人衰弱的产前诊断后，关于影响父母决策过程的因素的信息仍然不足。进行了全面的系统回顾和荟萃分析，以探讨父母在发现致命的、限制生命的或严重衰弱的胎儿异常后考虑终止或继续妊娠的影响因素。方法 对 13 个数据库进行电子检索。这些搜索还通过手动搜索谷歌学术、参考书目和引文追踪进行补充。Thomas 和 Harden (2008) 的主题综合方法用于综合已确定研究的数据。结果 确定并审查了 24 篇论文，但质量评估后删除了 2 篇论文。通过系统综合确定了三个主题。主题1，题为“所有的生命都是宝贵的”，描述了父母对胎儿生命重要性的看法，对自己处境的宿命论观点，以及道德含义以及考虑到以前的决定对自己生活的影响。生活经历。主题 2（“希望有积极的结果”）包含两个子主题，考虑了父母自己想象的未来和其他人经历的影响。最后，主题 3（“值得过的生活”）提出了三个可能影响父母决策的子主题：这些描述了父母对未出生孩子的生活质量的考虑，等待再次怀孕的可能性，以及他们自己的责任和承诺。结论 首次全面探讨致命、限制生命或严重使人衰弱的产前诊断后父母决策过程的综述提供了新的发现，并深入了解哪些因素影响父母的决策过程。这种全面、系统的审查可以更好地了解影响决策的因素，例如希望、道德以及对自己和他人生活质量的潜在影响，将使专业人员能够促进支持决策，包括对变量有更多的了解可能会影响父母的选择。