Nursing Care for Pregnant Women with Mental Health Complications

This article discusses the challenges faced by nursing professionals while caring for pregnant women with mental health complications and how to overcome them. It also highlights the importance of person-centered care and counseling for such women.

Running head: NURSING
NURSING
Name of the Student
Name of University
Author’s note

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Pregnancy is a symbol of fertility. It helps a girl to attain a maturity of a woman and to
become responsibility for self and for the baby. Getting pregnant is a right of every-women
unless or until a woman is suffering from certain sexually transmitted diseases or the couple is
having certain transmissible genetic disorders (Liao et al. 2015). Being a nursing professional, it
is my duty to provide holistic care to my patients while staying culturally and ethically
competent to a diverse group of professionals. However, when I am asked to care for an
expecting mother who is suffering from severe mental illness or having certain cognitive
disabilities, my professional liabilities face conflict with my personal or private self.
I think that a mother who is suffering from complex mental health diseases is not healthy
enough to bear a child as her mental anomalies will create a barrier towards normal physical and
psychological development of the infant. This belief or understanding create gap in my holistic
care approach. According to the study conducted by Hindmarsh, Llewellyn and Emerson (2015)
stated that infants of the mother who are suffering from intellectual disabilities experience social
disadvantage and at the same time pass through developmental delays. The condition becomes
worse when the woman is a single mother. Ranning et al. (2015) revealed in this cohort study
that mothers with mental illness provide disrupted care giving to their wards causing
complications in the developmental process.
My professional self however, instructs me come out from my stringent thought-process
and indulge in giving holistic care approach to the pregnant women. My senior colleagues and
recommended me to overcome this professionals versus personal dilemma by giving me
references to several scientific articles published in reference to pregnant among women with
mental health complications.

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The study conducted by Van der Ende et al. (2016) argued that condition for coping with
the mental-illness and caring for the child makes the mother with mental health disease
vulnerable towards self-harm or harm to the baby. However, application of the family centered
care can help support the mother in giving care to the child and at the same time contributing to
the recovery of the mother from mental heal disease. McGowan et al. (2017) further stated nearly
one-third of mentally ill mother of infants who are born preterm in the neonatal care unit (NICU)
are perceived less ready for discharge with their infants. Thus it is the duty of the nurses to
increase the provision for the transition service in order to fulfil their unmet needs.
The reading of the published scientific articles have helped me to understand that
bringing personal values in the professional practice will create a barrier for me in following the
standard practice guideline. Being a nurse it is my duty to assist my patients both for mental and
physical recovery. Thus going forward I will take assistance from the mental health nurses in
designing person-centred care plan for the mother suffering from mental health disease along
with regular counselling.

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References
Hindmarsh, G., Llewellyn, G. & Emerson, E., 2015, ‘Mothers with intellectual impairment and
their 9‐month‐old infants’, Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, vol. 59, no. 6,
pp.541-550.
Liao, C., Wahab, M., Anderson, J. & Coleman, J.S., 2015, ‘Reclaiming fertility awareness
methods to inform timed intercourse for HIV serodiscordant couples attempting to
conceive’, Journal of the International AIDS Society, vol. 18, no. 1, pp.19447.
McGowan, E.C., Du, N., Hawes, K., Tucker, R., O'Donnell, M. & Vohr, B., 2017, ‘Maternal
mental health and neonatal intensive care unit discharge readiness in mothers of preterm
infants’, The Journal of pediatrics, vol. 184, pp.68-74.
Ranning, A., Laursen, T.M., Thorup, A., Hjorthøj, C. & Nordentoft, M., 2015, ‘Serious mental
illness and disrupted caregiving for children: a nationwide, register-based cohort study’,
The Journal of clinical psychiatry, vol. 76, no. 8, pp.1006-1014.
Van der Ende, P.C., Van Busschbach, J.T., Nicholson, J., Korevaar, E.L.& Van Weeghel, J.,
2016. ‘Strategies for parenting by mothers and fathers with a mental illness’, Journal of
psychiatric and mental health nursing, vol. 23, no. 2, pp.86-97.