Prenatal screening has become an established part of Finnish maternity care since 2010 when the screening policies were merged throughout the nation. Today in almost every pregnancy foetal wellbeing is being monitored with different methods, for example ultrasound. The possibility of discovering fetal anomalies is increased due to the development of the prenatal screening technology. This might explain why induced abortions for fetal rea-sons have had an increase in the 2000. In 2011, a total of 2.5% of all abortions were carried out due to fetal abnormalities.

Families undergoing an abortion for fetal reasons are under a lot of stress. In these situations the hospital staff is required to have both theoretical and communicational skills. Theoretical knowledge is needed to manage the entire abortion as a process. As a part of good quality nursing the client is entitled to information regarding their care. The nursing professional or midwife should also be able to provide empathy, the ability to share the family’s sorrow.

In this study our goal is to identify the path of an induced abortion due to fetal abnormalities and the theoretical background within. In addition to the Thesis we have formed a leaflet, a guide to both professionals and students as a tool to be used in challenging nursing care situations. In order for the guide to serve the audience the best we also produced a questionnaire in which we collected information from professionals. The questionnaire was aimed to identify needs for additional information and proposals for future development.

Supporting the family in their grief was seen in particular as a difficult issue in the responses of our survey. Almost every respondent mentioned the need for additional information in that subject as well as means to support the family in their need. Many professionals also mentioned that the clinical pathway of the patient needed clarification. In our Thesis we have tried to respond to these wishes.

Based on the results of our questionnaire and the feedback we have obtained from the professional field we propose for further studies the following. The families’ point of view should be studied further for a full understanding of the abortion as an emotional process. We also propose that in the future the material such as the handouts given to the families should go through a development and improvement process.