Amother whose infant was found to have cerebral palsy at 6 months of age asks why she was not told that her baby had cerebral palsy when the infant was born. how should the nurse respond?

A baby that was diagnosed with cerebral palsy is a big life changing event that can occur in a parent's life. When the mother found out that the baby had cerebral palsy, the nurse was probably just as shocked as she was to find this out. Unfortunately in this day and age it is hard to determine exactly how a child's life will play out medically. There are many factors that are undetermined in the womb and throughout the first year that can play into account of medical issues when the child is older. One of the things that is able to be done before birth is genetic testing. The nurse could look into the patients chart and see if any medical testing was done. If it was done, were there any markers for cerebral palsy? If there were no markers, a good next step would be to reassure her that they will do everything in their power to get the proper testing and documentation to see what they can do to help the child. Cerebral palsy is very well known and there is a lot of research on this disease, so they can go into this battle with a least some light at the end of the tunnel and some knowledge instead of being in the dark. As the years go by, every day there are doctors and researchers testing and experimenting ways to battle these diseases, so to reassure the mother that there is hope would be the best solution.