Psychiatric Illness in Women: A Review of the Function of a Specialist Mother-Baby Unit

Objective: The aim of this paper is to describe a specialist program in a psychiatric mother-baby unit and to review the characteristics (including mothering skills) and outcomes on discharge of 36 women consecutively admitted to the unit over an intensive 6-month observation period. Changes in admissions to the same unit over 10 years were also compared. Method: Consecutive admissions were studied in terms of demographics, ethnicity, diagnosis, psychiatric history, psychiatric information and mother-infant data. Results: The majority of women admitted suffered from schizophrenia or other psychotic disorders, with the second largest diagnostic criteria being depression. For 20 mothers, this was the first psychiatric admission and most admissions were voluntary. The mean length of stay was 21.7 days, representing a highly significant decrease in stay when compared to the past 10 years in the same unit. Mothering skills were found to be incompetent or only passable in 57% of women. A small improvement occurred by discharge, and the majority of women were not separated from their infants. Conclusions: The critical need to support these women and their infants in the long term was highlighted, with recommendations of outpatient and day programs, as well as supported accommodation.