ATTITUDES OF IVF PARENTS REGARDING THE IVF EXPERIENCE AND THEIR CHILDREN

Purpose: to assess parental attitudes regarding the IVF experience, th e IVF pregnancy, and issues associated with raising their IVF child(re n). Method: parents (184 couples) of IVF children born between 1982 an d 1992 were mailed individual anonymous questionnaires. Results: (31%) parents responded: 62 mothers and 41 fathers. One hundred-three (41%) of the mothers felt that our staff could have been more helpful durin g their pregnancy. Half the women subjects (52%) stated that they wish ed they had contact, with other IVF couples during pregnancy. Fifty-tw o percent of the mothers reported that IVF created special feelings of attachment to the child, causing some difficulty with their initial s eparation. This was comparatively less an issue for fathers, with only 19% reporting similar difficulties (chi(2) = 8.39, P < 0.01). Ninety- eight percent of the subjects have told someone else about the IVF exp erience, Interestingly, 25% of the parents remained uncertain about wh ether they would tell the child, Sixteen couples (15%) had already tol d the child, and of the 57 (66%) who intended to tell the child later; they varied greatly in their views about which age would be appropria te (mean, 7.3 years; SD, 6.5 years; range, 2-21 years). Conclusions: T he results suggest that women undergoing IVF might profit from greater contact with staff during pregnancy and, again, later when dealing wi th issues of separation. A substantial proportion of couples expressed some concerns about the issue of disclosure to the child and might pr ofit from counseling when they feel the issue is current.