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The birth of a child with a craniofacial anomaly (CFA) can have a profound psychological impact on the family and the parental relationship. The purpose of this study was to qualitatively investigate how a child's CFA condition affected parents’ couple relationship.

All patients with a CFA are followed-up by the National Unit for Craniofacial Surgery, a specialized and multidisciplinary team. Hence, participants were recruited within a centralized treatment setting.

We used a qualitative approach to explore the relationship experiences of parents of children with CFAs. The interviews were analysed using a hermeneutic-phenomenological approach.

The study included 13 parents, nine mothers and four fathers of children with a range of different CFAs. At the time of the interview, 10 participants were married, one was cohabiting, and two were divorced.

Most participants perceived …