Publication: Shared Decision-Making in perinatology

How do parents would like to be involved in decisions regarding the treatment goal for their (unborn) child?

A meta-ethnography of 16 qualitative studies on parents’ perspectives on decision-making yielded new insights into this question.

What can you expect from this article?

Based on the included studies, four models of collaborative decision-making in perinatology are distinguished: tacit approval, recommendation acceptance, shared deliberation, and preference determination.

The authors then show that different parents prefer different models of decision-making for their (unborn) child. They also explain that the assessment of how well a model fits can change based on the experience with the decision.

The results suggest that rather than prescribing a single model, the form of parental involvement should be adapted to the specific situation. Physicians providing perinatal care should be able to implement all four models in order to tailor the decision-making process to the situation at hand.

Kuehlmeyer, K., Beyer, M.F., Mang, P. et al. How parents derive their informed role preferences for end-of-life medical decision-making for (unborn) children in perinatology: a meta-ethnography of qualitative interview studies. BMC Med Ethics 27, 199 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12910-026-01605-1