[The psychological experience of the mothers whose babies were born deformed in the neonatological ward of the academic hospital center of Treichville (Côte-d'Ivoire)].

Objective: When a baby is born deformed, his birth breaks up plans his family has made for his life as well as for the family itself. So, our objective was to describe the experience undergone by the mothers who gave birth to babies with serious deformities.

Method: A prospective and descriptive study was carried out during 12 months about 35 mothers whose babies were born seriously deformed. The data were collected from newborn's medical file and from a well-conducted interview with volunteered mothers.

Results: The incidence of the major deformities was 1.4% and the antenatal diagnosis was carried out on only 6 cases. The announcement of deformities in the 30 cases discovered at birth by the clinical staff brought about a shock among mothers. In fact, 28 mothers were disappointed, while 23 experienced fear and 10 others felt guilty. Six mothers thought in terms of aborting, followed by 25 mothers who without any psychological aid felt lonely. Furthermore, 30 mothers suffered from a lack of communication with nurses and with medical staff concerning deformities. The anxiety of mothers was linked, respectively to fear of their husband (33 cases), to the social environment (35 cases) and to the health care (10 cases).

Conclusion: Mothers facing congenital deformity experienced painful and violent emotional distress. Therefore, the emphasis must be put on the improvement of the neonatal diagnosis and of relationship between physicians and parents in order to achieve a close support toward mothers.