Unborn baby Flashcards
What is the perinatal period?
Period immediately before and after birth
starts at the 20th to 28th week of gestation and ends 1 to 4 weeks after birth
What can problems in perinatal mental health cause?
Antenatal and postnatal depression
PTSD
Postpartum psychosis
According to NICE guidelines, what should be used to assess to assess a pregnant women’s health and wellbeing?
GAD-2
Generalized anxiety disorder 2
How can the filtering capacity of the placenta be altered?
Maternal antenatal stress
emotional state of the mother can change this filtering capacity
more stress = more cortisol passing through
How can high levels of cortisol affect the fetus?`
Toxic for fetal brain - affects HPA axis
responsible for setting the stress thermostat and results in these children experiencing higher levels of stress throughout childhood into adulthood
What are the outcomes of Prenatal stress in children aged 3-16 years?
Child emotional problems, especially anxiety and depression
Symptoms of attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder
Conduct disorder
What are the outcomes of Prenatal stress in the mother or the pregnancy?
LBW/Small for gestational age
Preterm labour
Impaired blood flow or raised resistance index to the foetus through the maternal uterine arteries is associated with intra-uterine growth restriction and pre-eclampsia
What is psychic re-organisation?
Pregnancy is a time of “psychic re-organisation” and old psychological conflicts may be revived during this period
Women reflect on relationship with their own mother - evaluate the way they were parented
re-awaken -ve feelings and emotions
What is maternal representation of the developing baby?
mental images or thoughts about what her unborn baby is, or will be, like
Occurs during 2nd/3rd trimester
associated with a child’s attachment security after birth
What happens is MR is diengaged or distorted?
Mothers with balanced representations are more likely to have infant’s who are securely attached at 12 months
Mothers who have disengaged or distorted representations are more likely to have infant’s who are insecurely attached or disorganised.
What is the working model of the child? What categories are in it?
Interview technique is used to assess mother’s maternal representations of their developing baby Balanced Disengaged Distorted Disrupted
What is ‘Ghosts in the nursery’?
Ghosts from the parent’s childhood invade the nursery (i.e. the parent-infant relationship) by unconsciously influencing the way parents think about and behave towards their baby.
Parents may re-enact with their baby ‘scenes from their own unremembered, but still painfully influential early experiences of helplessness and fear’.
can make their appearance during pregnancy as a result of their impact on the mothers psychic re-organisation or her developing maternal representations.
What are unresolved parents?
Parents who carry with them issues from their childhood that have not been addressed
less able to parent their baby because the infants distress triggers their own stress and painful memories of vulnerability and dependence
unable to respond to the infant in terms of his or her current functioning
inaccurate assumptions about the reasons for infant distress
What is an example of unresolved parents behaviour?
mother might suggest that her baby is crying ‘to annoy her’; or she may describe the baby in highly critical and inappropriate terms (i.e. she is evil).
As a result of this unresolved trauma, these parents tend to become very withdrawn or very intrusive in their parenting
How can parents go from unresolved to resolved?
they need the opportunity to address the issues from their childhood, and help to learn how to understand the mental state of oneself and others.
