Psychoses of Childbearing

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Abstract
It is natural to assume that because a psychosis occurs during the process of childbearing the two events are therefore necessarily associated, but the evidence is conflicting and the relationship between them has not been established with certainty. In fact no immediate dramatic cause has yet been demonstrated that would account for such mental breakdowns, and it would be surprising if it had, for the great majority of psychoses not related to maternity show no simple sequence of cause and effect.Yet it would be wrong to dismiss without further examination an occasion so important in the life of the mother as childbirth as of no aetiological consequence. In the types of psychosis under consideration the clinical onset had often been a sudden and disturbing event, just at that particular time in the patient's life when she was confronted with the responsibility of motherhood. Further examination of the patient's history however often revealed previous evidence of emotional disturbance, or of instability in other members of her family.

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