A hermeneutic phenomenological study of the maternal lived experience of receiving a prenatal diagnosis of agenesis of the corpus collosum

Agenesis of the corpus callosum (ACC) is characterised by the absence or anomalous development of the largest interhemispheric tract in the brain and is increasingly identified through prenatal screening. Fetal anomalies that are highly uncertain, neurological in nature or identified mid-to-late gestation are associated with poor maternal psychosocial outcomes, and ACC meets all three criteria. A review of the literature revealed a paucity of research on the non-biomedical aspects of this prenatal diagnosis, which limited recommendations for care of mothers after a fetal diagnosis of ACC.