Re: Pregnancy Denial-- a real psychological disorder?
I have a sister who had no idea she was pregnant until a paramedic in the ambulance told her she was crowning. She had survived a ruptured appendix with many complications and was told she would probably never be able to have kids naturally. She also had very irregular periods, sometimes spotting, sometimes skipping months at a time. She had a small amount of "tummy rumbles" (kicking), but this was normal for her following her ruptured appy and the subsequent surgeries and adhesions. When she was ill, she lost a lot of weight, so we were all happy to see her gain some of it back--about 15 pounds total. She certainly didn't look pregnant, just a little bloated, which, again, was normal after all she'd been through.
There was no shade of denial on her part. She was thrilled but stunned. As was her husband. And the rest of the family. My mother called to tell me my little sis had just given birth, and I thought she was joking.
As for the woman in France, it's hard to know where to draw the line between a genuine psychosis and a conduct disorder. If she is truly so mentally ill that she can't be held accountable, she ought to volunteer to be sterilized or put on a highly dependable form of birth control, or she should be mandated to have monthly pregnancy tests and some kind of close supervision if she becomes pregnant again. And then the baby should be transferred to a safe environment.
If you can't be held liable because you are that disturbed, then there need to be external measures applied to keep history from repeating itself.
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