title: Maternal-fetal medicine specialists' experiences of conducting feticide as part of termination of pregnancy: a qualitative study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study aimed to explore maternal-fetal medicine specialists' experiences of conducting feticide in late termination of pregnancy.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants were recruited via email. Purposeful sampling resulted in ten maternal-fetal specialists. Semistructured interviews were used to examine their experiences of conducting feticide. Interviews occurred across four English National Health Service hospitals. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was used.
  
  
  RESULTS
  An ongoing doctor-patient relationship when conducting feticide facilitated participants' self-image as clinicians rather than technicians. Coping involved rationalisation, with feticide viewed as 'part of the job'. Supportive team relationships helped keep emotional expression within control. Participants were not distressed if they felt, through relationship-based decision-making, that the feticide aligned with their values and legal interpretation. To avoid negative judgements, they disclosed selectively, only telling trusted individuals that they conducted feticides.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Participants experienced conducting feticides as difficult but necessary, eliciting pride from the skills involved. Some noted management of personal distress. Optimal conditions were involvement in the process from the initial decision-making and team support. Providing feticides was deemed as potentially stigmatising, with selective disclosure employed. Training in managing feticides and guidance on providing optimal service conditions may decrease selectivity of disclosures and enhance staff well-being and the quality of feticide provisions. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Psychology (Complex Cases, Central), Gaskell House, Manchester, UK.
authors.forename: Vanessa
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Fay
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Psychology and Neuropsychology, Queens Medical Centre, Nottingham, UK.
authors.forename: Sophie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Psychology - Ground Floor Whelan Building, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK.|Department of Psychological Sciences, Institute of Psychology, Health and Society, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK.
authors.forename: Pauline
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Slade
mesh_terms: D000025:Abortion, Eugenic / Q000941:ethics / Q000379:methods / Q000523:psychology*; D000032:Abortion, Therapeutic / Q000941:ethics / Q000379:methods / Q000523:psychology*; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D004739:England; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D010500:Perinatology; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D011247:Pregnancy; D011262:Pregnancy Trimester, Second; D036301:Qualitative Research