Review
Version 1
Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed
Grappling with the Issue of Motherhood in Women with Schizophrenia
Version 1
: Received: 7 October 2023 / Approved: 8 October 2023 / Online: 8 October 2023 (03:31:56 CEST)
A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.
Seeman, M.V. Grappling with Issues of Motherhood for Women with Schizophrenia. Healthcare 2023, 11, 2882. Seeman, M.V. Grappling with Issues of Motherhood for Women with Schizophrenia. Healthcare 2023, 11, 2882.
Abstract
While persons with schizophrenia find steady employment difficult to sustain, many of the women take on the most difficult task of all – motherhood. The aim of this paper is to review the challenges of motherhood in this population and the treatment strategies needed to keep mothers and children safe, protecting health and fostering growth. This is a narrative review reflecting the author’s life experience and a non-systematic search of the recent literature. Topics added are the stigma against motherhood in the context of schizophrenia, mothers’ painful choices, issues of contraception, abortion, and child custody, fostering and kin placement of children, the effects of antipsychotics, specific perinatal delusional syndromes, and parental supports. Recommendations are to work collaboratively with mothers who struggle with serious mental illness, take note of their strengths as well as their failings, offer a wide array of family services, monitor closely for safety, and appreciate the challenges these women daily face.
Keywords
Antipsychotics; Child Custody; Interventions; Mothers; Parenting; Schizophrenia; Stigma; Support; Women
Subject
Medicine and Pharmacology, Psychiatry and Mental Health
Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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