Ethical dilemma

[paris2]

other I had a 34yrs female patient, history of taking recreational drugs, who is in & out of prision, at present out electronically tagged, who has 6 childrens. (16, 12, 8, 7, 5, 3), she is not sure where 16yrs is as she comes & goes. Other five are in foster care. But during undetaking nursing assessment she tells me that she thinks she may be pregnant. I informed the medical staff since she was about to undgergo planned surgery under GA. Pregnancy test confirmed positive. Her op was cancelled and she was in tears very upset about it. However she asked me not to let social services know about her pregnancy as they will take that child away from her. As it is my professional duty i inform the Social Service. Though I felt bad about it.

What would you have done in this case?

[mabel u.k]

other I had a 34yrs female patient, history of taking recreational drugs, who is in & out of prision, at present out electronically tagged, who has 6 childrens. (16, 12, 8, 7, 5, 3), she is not sure where 16yrs is as she comes & goes. Other five are in foster care. But during undetaking nursing assessment she tells me that she thinks she may be pregnant. I informed the medical staff since she was about to undgergo planned surgery under GA. Pregnancy test confirmed positive. Her op was cancelled and she was in tears very upset about it. However she asked me not to let social services know about her pregnancy as they will take that child away from her. As it is my professional duty i inform the Social Service. Though I felt bad about it.

What would you have done in this case?

Social services would have found out anyway from GP, Health visitor or midwives if the other children were on the at risk register and in foster homes. You acted appropriately and in the best interst of the patient and child

[madwife2002, BSN, RN]

Dont beat yourself up about it, social services needed to know, it is important for the unborn child. My friend fostered two girls who's mother was of similar description to the above, she got pregnant every year and every year she was going to be a new kind of mother and every year.....well I wont go into details. They will only remove the child if the mother is a danger to it, they will hopefully monitor the pregnancy and surrounding care and supervise after birth.

You did what you needed to do.