Beauty and the beast: A psychoanalytically oriented qualitative study detailing mothers' experience of perinatal obsessive‐compulsive disorder

Abstract

Our understanding of mothers' experience of perinatal obsessive‐compulsive disorder (POCD) is limited. While symptoms of POCD have been documented in the literature, the wider lived experience of people with this condition has received less attention. This study used a psychoanalytically informed research method to explore mothers' experiences of POCD. Five participants each engaged in three unstructured interviews, where participants were given time and space to discuss their personal experience. Three major themes emerged from the interviews conducted: a difficult road to motherhood, which related to the challenges participants faced becoming mothers; protector/aggressor, which described the tension between participants' intrusive thoughts and their desire to protect their baby; and mothers' loss, which described participants' sense of sadness having experienced POCD at this special time in their lives. These themes are discussed in relation to their significance for our thinking about mothers' experience of POCD during pregnancy, postnatally and beyond.

“I felt like a bad monster was rising up in me”: Empirical and clinical evidence of maternal disintegrative responses in the context of infant care

“…They sought to examine whether these thoughts serve as a creative impulse that can be constructively incorporated into mothering and maternal subjectivity. Here, and in other studies of mothers' intrusive thoughts (Boyd & Gannon, 2021;Burton, 2021;Meehan et al, 2021), it was found that mothers described their thoughts as related to ambivalence toward the maternal role, the heavy responsibility of caring for a helpless infant, and painful feelings such as shame, guilt, and loss. While some of these studies investigated the intrusive thoughts of women diagnosed with OCD (Burton, 2021;Meehan et al, 2021), others focused on the experience within a normative range (Boyd & Gannon, 2021;Murray & Finn, 2012).…”

“…Here, and in other studies of mothers' intrusive thoughts (Boyd & Gannon, 2021;Burton, 2021;Meehan et al, 2021), it was found that mothers described their thoughts as related to ambivalence toward the maternal role, the heavy responsibility of caring for a helpless infant, and painful feelings such as shame, guilt, and loss. While some of these studies investigated the intrusive thoughts of women diagnosed with OCD (Burton, 2021;Meehan et al, 2021), others focused on the experience within a normative range (Boyd & Gannon, 2021;Murray & Finn, 2012). All of them, however, shared the common goal of removing the taboo surrounding this issue and presenting the lived and subjective experience of mothers.…”

The Maternal Disintegrative Responses Scale (MDRS): Development and initial validation

“…Ignoring this issue may impact the low detection of women with OCD, as well as the lack of awareness and the taboo surrounding the normal occurrence of intrusive thoughts, potentially leading to feelings of shame and guilt among those who experience them (Boyd & Gannon, 2021;Meehan et al, 2021).…”

“…Yet, despite the distress that may be aroused by maternal intrusive thoughts at varying levels of frequency and intensity, they have received little attention in the empirical, therapeutic, or social discourse (Brok et al, 2017 ). Ignoring this issue may impact the low detection of women with OCD, as well as the lack of awareness and the taboo surrounding the normal occurrence of intrusive thoughts, potentially leading to feelings of shame and guilt among those who experience them (Boyd & Gannon, 2021 ; Meehan et al, 2021 ).…”

Mother’s disintegrative responses in the context of infant care: Clinical and empirical evidence of the role of empathy and parity.

“…with her infant Solomon & George, 2011). Although these responses are mostly characterized as elusive and fleeting, they are described by mothers as intense and unsettling, triggering considerable distress (Meehan et al, 2022;Murray & Finn, 2012). According to Raphael-Leff (2010), they may reflect an unconscious process of contagious arousal that arises in a mother because of her constant exposure to the infant's arousal, embodied in primary and powerful emotions and substances, which may cause her to have similar experiences and emotions as if they were also hers.…”