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My personal interest in the subject area of pseudocyesis was established in the autumn of 2011, whilst I was working as a teacher in a London primary school. At the time I was teaching a class of children at the Early Years level and the age-range of the class was from 3-5 years. One of the children in my class who, for the purpose of anonymity, I shall refer to as Child Z slowly became increasingly quiet and withdrawn. The mother of Child Z had made it known to staff in the Early Years unit a few weeks before that she was three months pregnant and was expecting a little girl. Child Z appeared to react to this news in a negative way. The teaching team, when discussing the subject of Child Z’s increasingly aloof and introverted behaviour theorised that perhaps he was finding the news of his mother’s pregnancy troubling and due to his young age (he was 3 years old) didn’t know how to express these feelings. I tried talking separately to both Child Z and his mother about the changes in his mood and behaviour but was reassured by his mother that the family had also noticed and were hoping it was just a short lived phase that he would soon come out of.
Over the next few weeks though, this did not happen and in fact Child Z’s behaviour became more pronounced in its abnormalities and on several occasions he expressed both anger and violence in the play areas towards other children over what were minor matters. Together as a staff unit the behaviour of Child Z was managed and whilst his mood and behaviour remained introverted his outbursts of temper were containable and I looked to nurture a classroom environment which helped Child Z to feel as secure as possible, regularly praising his good work and initiating things like sticker charts in order to assist in boosting his confidence and self-esteem.
However, towards the end of spring 2012 Child Z’s mood and behaviour dipped even further and for a few days he even stopped talking to others. The staff team again consulted each other and the head-teacher at this stage. The team made note of the fact that the mother’s pregnancy was now in what we calculated to be its tenth month. Also the mother had ceased to look visibly pregnant and when dropping-off and collecting Child Z from school she appeared to be agitated, short-tempered and always in a rush. The staff team, led by myself, took the decision to approach Child Z’s mother and express our concerns. Without going into the details of the meeting and all the subsequent actions taken as a result of the findings of that meeting, an answer as to Child Z’s change in mood and behaviour revealed itself.
The mother stated that she believed that she was pregnant, but she had recently been told by clinicians that they now believed that she had experienced a false pregnancy (pseudocyesis). However, the mother, at the time of the meeting, remained in denial and vehemently expressed to us that she was pregnant. She informed the team that there were family tensions with Child Z’s father, who had been on and off the scene for an extended period and relatives on both sides not understanding the situation, indeed some of their reported verbal exchanges sounded vicious and hurtful and Child Z’s mother was tearful throughout her recounting. She reported having been extremely depressed and low in her own mood just under a year before, following her husband’s leaving of the family home. She told us that she was worried about her ability to cope and disclosed that she was ashamed of the fact that often when things were getting too much for her she would inadvertently take it out on Child Z and blame him for situations that were not his fault. It was indeed a huge disclosure and had no doubt been hard for her to make.
Whilst safeguarding measures were taken for Child Z by other parties and counselling support was offered to his mother, I felt at the time and still feel that this situation was one that whilst not necessarily being preventable, could definitely have been better understood and supported. It is my belief that with this greater understanding and ability to support those women who suffer from pseudocyesis by both clinicians and laymen that families can be helped in the management of the heartache and upheaval that the condition can cause. Having since left the teaching profession and made the transition to mental health nursing I now want to take the opportunity to explore and understand the nurses lived experience of pseudocyesis so that we can further our knowledge and understanding of the condition in order to better support the women (and families) who suffer from the condition.
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