DIANA WILSON WITH HER THIRD DAUGHTER, LARA--Diana, with her four daughters on holiday.
Diana suffered from perinatal OCD through four pregancies.-Diana recovered with the help of five CBT sessions.
18 JANUARY 2016 • 11:16AM
When Diana Wilson was having contractions in hospital with her fourth baby, the thoughts entering her head were so violent that she was convinced social services would come and take her child away once it was born.
“The thoughts were telling me that when I got home I would kill this baby and then my other children would be taken away from me, that I’d had an affair and the baby wasn’t my husband’s, that I’d strangle her in my sleep”.
The thoughts didn’t stop when Diana, now 50, went home with her newborn daughter. Three months after the birth, Diana was unable to get out of bed for a week. “ I cocooned myself – I couldn’t eat because I was so terrified that if I picked up a knife I would stab them [her four children], that every time I opened a cabinet and saw my husband’s razor blades I would take one out and cut them. I’d go to give my newborn a bath and the thoughts would come saying push her, hold her down, hold her under.”
Diana didn’t know at the time that she was suffering from pure “O” (obsessive thoughts with no observable compulsive behaviour)perinatal Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. OCD during pregnancy is a condition that affects two to four per cent of all new mothers, and can be developed shortly before or after pregnancy.
Alternatively, sufferers of pre-existing OCD find their symptoms exacerbated during pregnancy, because of a heightened sense of responsibility for the safety of a developing child.
Perinatal OCD is one of the most severe mental health disorders that can affect women during pregnancy, providing extreme mental distress to both mother and child that can be life-threatening.
But as it stands, three-quarters of women who suffer from the most critical mental health illnesses, including OCD, severe depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and postpartum psychosis, won’t have any access to specialist care.
A few days ago, David Cameron pledged an expansion of perinatal (meaning during and after pregnancy) services for women who need vital treatment for such conditions, promising that by the end of the decade the 40,000 mothers estimated to suffer from such illnesses will have access to specialist services such as Mother and Baby units, which offer on-site consultant psychiatrists and occupational therapies. Currently, only 10,000 mothers are able to access this level of support.
