Screening at the six-week check and signposting to services could prevent suffering and save lives, write Fiona Challacombe, Diana Wilson and Maria Bavetta
We were glad that the story of Kimberley Nixon was highlighted in your article and commend her openness about the devastating nature of perinatal OCD (‘This is so taboo’: Kimberley Nixon on the hell of perinatal OCD – and how she survived it, 28 April). Experiencing vivid unwanted intrusive thoughts, images and urges of accidentally or deliberately harming your infant can be hugely distressing, isolating and often misunderstood. Intrusions and compulsions can take, or indeed steal, hours a day, and can make women feel as if they are the worst mothers possible.
In severe cases, women can feel that ending their lives is the only course of action. We have been activists and researchers in perinatal OCD for 20 years and are aware of the issues of lack of recognition, misdiagnosis, inappropriate safeguarding procedures being activated and difficulties in accessing effective therapy.
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