Nobody can answer that question as it could only be answered on a case by case basis. It's one of those situations that's so dependent upon specific facts and components that to be able to tell for sure one way or another is almost impossible.
When my nan had her youngest son she developed puerperal psychosis and was a risk to herself, however at no point was she classified as a danger to her children. But like I said it's a very individual situation, given other circumstances and factors she may have been considered a risk to them.
Some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money.
They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned or negotiated with.
Some men just want to watch the world burn.
I agree with Rhuben here, it is very case by case and depends upon a lot of individual factors.
One thing to consider is whether it is a good idea for you to take on the additional stress, financial and time considerations of a child, while you are feeling in any way unstable - Would it put you at greater risk to yourself?
I understand the desire to have a child, really I do. But I would encourage you to discuss this with your care team to see whether doing so would be putting you at a greater risk.
Only then, can you consider whether it would also put the child at risk. The questions here are how any neglect of the self may also lead to neglect of the child. Whether you are able to give the child the time and attention it requires. Whether you may be led to take actions that you may otherwise not in desperation that may put you, and/or the child at risk.
Ultimately, we can not answer these questions for you.
Roiben x
If the Human brain were so simple that we could understand it, we would be so simple that we wouldn't.
Thanks for your replies! It is a lot to consider and yes, I guess it does depend on the individual case. I will see what my case co-ordinator has to say! Thanks again x
As the above have said - it depends on the person. However my CPN (wh ospecialises in pregnant & new mums) says that she has only had a small handful of women who have no tbeen able to keep their babies this year - out of hundreds (maybe not that much, can't remember how many she said, but it was a lot!) on their casebooks, and that's because they really, really were in no way able to keep their baby, even with intensive support fro mthe peri-natal psychiatric team (which does exist!) These women were seriously disturbed - very very ill. She says people with 'my' condition - bipolar I - are generally able to manage, with the right support etc.
I am lucky to live in an area which has a mother & baby inpatient ward, which I will be using.I have a fantastic peri natal psych, CPN & psychiatric midwife. My fiance and his family are also very, very supportive.
It depends what you think you will need, and how it is that you might not cope- I wouldn't be doing it without a loving, supportive family & friends network behind me. My fiance will be taking his paternity leave & holidays to look after the baby at first, and then I only have to cope through the day until he gets home at night. My CPN assures me I can go into the hospital for any length of period, whenever I want - either during the day, or over night during the week.
I found out today in talking to someone that in the UK if you have a mental health problem or history of this type of problem the midwife automatically calls social services for an assessment. Its just an assessment of your current circumstances and they tend to then offer up more contact with the midwife and an extra scan. Unless there are current problems, at which point I expect they would refer to a psychiatrist for more assessment and go from there.
Not many people are considered risk enough for social services to formally 'step in', most of the time if there is a problem, they seek to offer more support and guidance.
The person I was speaking to said to me that because of my history, if at any point in the future I planned to get pregnant I would have to expect my mental health to be questioned and in her opinion it'd be wise to talk to social services before they would inevitably contact me.
Talk to your care co-ordinator and express your concerns, wishes and ask questions. It is very much an individual case thing, but you will have some form of risk assessment at some point should you become pregnant, or before hand if you speak to them about planning pregnancy and from that they will decide what sort of support to offer, and rarely, but if done before you conceive, they would warn you if they felt you were too unsafe, unstable or unwell to care for a young dependant. In which case you can work with them on becoming well so you can manage bring children into the world safely in the future.
Either way, its something you should discuss at length if you are seriously planning a pregnancy. Good luck x
I'm diagnosed bipolar I- a severe & enduring mental illness. Am 35 weeks pg, with a peri natal CPN, psych and psychiatric midwife, aswell as 'normal' community midwife. And I've never had social services 'called on me'.
I guess if you are under mental health services then there is no need for SS to assess. I am only speaking from what this person has told me has happened with all three of her pregnancies and from what I know of another woman who has had involvement with SS as soon as she saw her midwife they referred to SS based on history of severe mental illness.
I could be completely wrong though as I don't know exactly how it works in other areas. Maybe its a hospital policy thing because they both were under the same team of midwives.
I certainly didn't mean for it to sound like they come down on you, for the people I was talking about it was only an assessment to check they don't need to be involved or to monitor the situation via the midwife.
Your CPN should be able to tell you what is on offer in terms of support though because I am sure they have seen plenty of women during or after pregnancy in their career.
Thank you for all your replies! It has been interesting to read your experiences. You have made me feel a lot better as although the social services may be involved, it sounds like they're quite fair and it's only severe cases in which they may consider you unfit to look after a child and it sounds like there is a lot of support out there anyway.
I've asked this question as I thought I might be pregnant and my mum said straight away that they'd probably take the child off me but it sounds like they probably wouldn't have. I'm not pregnant though by the way but I do plan to have children in the near future. xx
I am currently 32 weeks pregnant and have a lot of support, I currently have 7 people looking after my case, so that is great! I have a sepcial midwife who deals with people with mental health problems which was given to me without me even realising, I have a normal psychitrist, a perinatal psychitrist (specialises in before and after pregnant women) a normal psychitrst from my normal team, a cpn, a psychologist and because I had to be refered to social services as its a matter of corse I had an assesment with a social work but was considered not at risk at the time so my baby wasn't put on a plan but we have been refered to this team called the Early Intervention Prevention Service (EIPS) which is like a lower level of support who will monitor me and my baby after birth for as long as they feel necessary and if any does go wrong will obviously inform social services (which is scary but good because I'm just seeing it as another level of support) I also have a health visitor who is visiting me before birth aswell (not sure if that's normal or not) and she is awaware of my mental health problems.
So there is a lot of support and I have been told by almost evey single of those people that they don't take your child away unless something serious goes wrong and they consider them a danger, it all depends on what your illness is and how it makes you act. There are also perinatal psychitric wards for babies and mothers to go if something goes wrong so if you were to get unwell I'm sure they would put you there first before taking drastic action!
My problems envolve running away and overdosing and obviously if I were to do that when there was noone to look after the baby and I left him the flat on his own, then something would have to happen but I have been very stable since finding out I'm pregnant so hopefully it won't be a problem!
Anyways I have babbled, but I've hope I've made you realise that eventhough there is always the fear of your baby being taken away it doesn't always happen and there is A LOT of support to stop that happening!
When i was pregnant there was a lot of amazing support around, i came close to being admitted to a perinatal unit but even in the community the support was fantastic.
