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Postpartum Mood and Anxiety Disorders: A Clinician's Guide: .
Designed for clinicians delivering postpartum care, including midwives, OB-GYN nurse practitioners, and women’s health practitioners, this text overviews the six different mood and anxiety disorders, and provides the implications for practice, and screening tools.
- GenresPsychology
248 pages, Paperback
First published September 7, 2005
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February 14, 2012
I had this as a review book and it has taken me a shamefully long time to get through it for some reason - though it was very quickly apparent that it did not meet the criteria for which I was reviewing. Given that one of the authors was a lactation consultant, she seems remarkably convinced of the therapeutic power of someone else giving the baby a bottle in treating mothers' psychological problems which may rear their sorry heads post partum. There is no mention, in the otherwise detailed descriptions of the full treatment plans in the case study, that she advised or supported this in a way which properly facilitated informed decision making. It's far more complicated than "Oh if you don't fancy the risks of formula, you can always pump"
It was quite an interesting read. The paradigm would seem to involve a lot of emphasis on the role of hormones in making women 'a bit loopy' [my words] - the case histories involve detailed analysis of each woman's previous response to hormonal events, be they exogenous eg contraceptive pills, or related to menstrual cycle. Inheritance seems (implicitly) to be felt to play a big part - I am not sure I can recall a case study in which the mother's mother was described as having no anxious/depressive tendencies. This is not to say that social and cultural influences are deemed irrelevant but the book seemed quite narrowly psychiatric. The authors clearly feel very strongly that treatment is largely pharmacology combined individual psychotherapy - as perhaps befits their helping roles with women in distress in the here and now but it made it a frustrating read for me. I had to smile at the dietary and supplement prescriptions - possibly entirely appropriate but from my reading very culturally based in their detail. Oddly there was essentially nothing about puerpural psychosis - perhaps they don't classify it as a mood or anxiety disorder, but even so, it seemed an omission.
I think it will be useful to me in flagging up some other indicators of possible psychiatric pathology - although I could weep for a sense of euphoria post birth being seen as evidence for bipolar II disorder. I wanted to say "I know what you mean... but...." I really felt that empowerment was missing from this book even if good intentions were not.
It was quite an interesting read. The paradigm would seem to involve a lot of emphasis on the role of hormones in making women 'a bit loopy' [my words] - the case histories involve detailed analysis of each woman's previous response to hormonal events, be they exogenous eg contraceptive pills, or related to menstrual cycle. Inheritance seems (implicitly) to be felt to play a big part - I am not sure I can recall a case study in which the mother's mother was described as having no anxious/depressive tendencies. This is not to say that social and cultural influences are deemed irrelevant but the book seemed quite narrowly psychiatric. The authors clearly feel very strongly that treatment is largely pharmacology combined individual psychotherapy - as perhaps befits their helping roles with women in distress in the here and now but it made it a frustrating read for me. I had to smile at the dietary and supplement prescriptions - possibly entirely appropriate but from my reading very culturally based in their detail. Oddly there was essentially nothing about puerpural psychosis - perhaps they don't classify it as a mood or anxiety disorder, but even so, it seemed an omission.
I think it will be useful to me in flagging up some other indicators of possible psychiatric pathology - although I could weep for a sense of euphoria post birth being seen as evidence for bipolar II disorder. I wanted to say "I know what you mean... but...." I really felt that empowerment was missing from this book even if good intentions were not.
Displaying 1 of 1 review