Pregnancy psychosis ’emergency’<\/a><\/p>\nHundreds of women each year suffer crippling pregnancy-related psychosis but many states do not have hospital beds to treat the condition.<\/p>\n
The condition, which affects one to two in 1,000 mothers, is considered a psychiatric emergency, developing suddenly in the days or weeks after birth.<\/p>\n
But many of the women interviewed said their symptoms were not met with urgent concern, lead author and provisional psychologist Donna McMahon said.<\/p>\n
“One of the stand-out findings of the research for me was that all the women we interviewed recognised something felt wrong to them,” she told the ABC.<\/p>\n
“They all describe having this feeling soon after childbirth, but before other and more overt psychotic symptoms developed.<\/p>\n
“None of the women thought to be disingenuous or hide their symptoms, they were actively seeking help.<\/p>\n
“[But] they described feeling like their symptoms were going unheard and minimised when they were asking for help.”<\/p>\n
Women report a sense ‘something was not right’\u00a0<\/p>\n
More than half of the 15 women interviewed by researchers had never been diagnosed with a mental health condition prior to developing postpartum psychosis.<\/p>\n
The lowest number of contacts with the Australian healthcare system when seeking help was four times.<\/p>\n
The highest number was 27.<\/p>\n
Women often had recognised a “vague, yet persistent sense that something was not right soon after childbirth”, the report said.<\/p>\n
Many said they had requested to be taken to the hospital, identifying they needed “urgent” support.<\/p>\n
“I can remember thinking I’ve got to get to the bottom of this,” one woman told researchers.<\/p>\n
“Like \u2026 I’m going to get everyone together. I need my doctor. I need my psychiatrist. I need to \u2026 work out what’s going on.”<\/p>\n
But the process of getting help, according to the report, was “fragmented”.<\/p>\n
Many women found the healthcare professionals they spoke to were unfamiliar with postpartum psychosis, often underestimating or overlooking symptoms.<\/p>\n
They found their symptoms were “invisible” until they deteriorated further.<\/p>\n
“It was sort of determined that it was probably a bit of baby blues,” one woman said.<\/p>\n
“I had lost touch with reality in that next 24 hours.”More follow-up needed from healthcare staff\u00a0<\/p>\n
The report identified a “critical period” for detecting postpartum psychosis early in its onset.<\/p>\n
Failure to get help when they first noticed something was not right, according to the women interviewed, left many of them experiencing worsened outcomes.<\/p>\n
“We are very lucky to have a health system like we do in Australia \u2026 but just like any system there is room for improvements,” Ms McMahon said.<\/p>\n
Loading Instagram content<\/p>\n
“From our research, one of those areas is [that] we need to actively and carefully listen to women and families when they are presenting time and again, saying something isn’t right.<\/p>\n
“We found the women felt that healthcare professionals weren’t asking enough follow-up questions or probing questions that could help [the women] articulate what this feeling was.<\/p>\n
“One way that the system can improve on their detection of this disorder is by improving the awareness and knowledge of what postpartum psychosis is, how it may present.”<\/p>\n
The report noted some limitations, including that its small sample size had been recruited via social media support groups.<\/p>\n
This, according to the report, may mean the women were “more engaged with services and willing to share their experiences”.<\/p>\n
“However the sample reflects the target population relevant to the study and provides a realistic snapshot of the help-seeking experiences of women within the Australian healthcare system,” the report said.<\/p>\n
The localised sample size also meant the findings were more specific to Australia, and should not be used to draw global conclusions.<\/p>\n
Concerns among women put down as ‘part of new motherhood’\u00a0<\/p>\n
Asked about the report, psychologist Ariane Beeston said having localised research was vital.<\/p>\n
Ms Beeston was diagnosed with postpartum psychosis after the birth of her son, Henry, in 2011.<\/p>\n
‘His little face turned into a dragon’: One mother’s experience of postnatal psychosis<\/a><\/p>\nAriane Beeston worked as a child protection officer, the vicarious trauma of that work impacted her when she had a child of her own.<\/p>\n
She has since written a book about her experience and now works for the Centre of Perinatal Excellence (COPE), Australia’s peak perinatal mental health body.<\/p>\n
“[Postpartum psychosis] has definitely been an under-researched area, so while the findings aren’t surprising, it’s so important ot have them documented,” she said.<\/p>\n
“One thing that stood out to me was just the fact [that] when we’re at our most vulnerable, we’re left navigating this really confusing, fragmented system that’s often ill-equipped to meet our needs.<\/p>\n
“The other thing [was] concerns being dismissed and minimised, or put down as simply being part of new motherhood.”<\/p>\n
She said the number of women in the report who had actively sought help had surprised her.<\/p>\n
“[I] and other women found it really difficult to speak up and ask for help, and certainly were fighting [or] downplaying symptoms,” she said.<\/p>\n
“I think while there are women who are very proactive and presenting to health professionals \u2026 there’s still a lot of stigma and shame around this condition.<\/p>\n
“It’s not the case that everyone feels comfortable enough to seek help.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian women with postpartum psychosis are “falling through the cracks”, with some contacting health services dozens of times…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":936022,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[64,63,44982,137,500,514,5005,159802,337],"class_list":["post-936021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-flinders-university","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-mental-health","tag-mental-illness","tag-postpartum-psychosis","tag-research"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=936021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/936022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=936021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=936021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=936021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}