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Infertile schizophrenic Pune woman wins to become a mother
Dr Naik said that the patient was on multiple drugs due to paranoid schizophrenia and had to also be given shock therapy during pregnancy, which overall, was a psychiatric challenge.
In a rare case, a 36-year-old woman who has been married for 12 years, with primary infertility for 11 years and a known case of paranoid schizophrenia for the last 20 years, successfully delivered a baby at the Sassoon General Hospital, last week.
Giving details about the case, doctors from the hospital said that the patient was a known case of psychiatric illness for the last 20 years and had her first episode of schizophrenia at 15 years of age, following the death of a family member.
Obstetrician and operating surgeon Dr Shilpa Naik said, "The woman came to Sassoon General Hospital when she was 18 weeks pregnant. The patient’s relatives were worried about the pregnancy and the outcome since the patient was under various drugs. Initially, her relatives insisted on medical termination of pregnancy. With primary infertility of 11 years and 18 weeks of pregnancy with a huge fibroid in the uterus, termination would have been very risky to the extent that the patient would land in hysterotomy (an incision in the uterus) and hysterectomy (surgical removal of the uterus) if she developed a haemorrhage following abortion. After counselling, the relatives agreed to continue the pregnancy. The patient received obstetric and psychiatric treatment jointly, while she was admitted in the psychiatry ward."
Dr Naik said that the patient was on multiple drugs due to paranoid schizophrenia and had to also be given shock therapy during pregnancy, which overall, was a psychiatric challenge. "Also, it was important that the medicines do not affect the foetus. The patient had also developed diabetes and hence there were complications because of the same," said Dr Naik.
She added that a caesarean section was planned last week and a healthy female child weighing 3 kgs was delivered by vertex and handed over to the neonatologist for further care.
Speaking about the case, doctors at the hospital said, “We managed to tide over most of these challenges with a multidisciplinary approach involving many interdisciplinary meetings to discuss what all we could do for the patient. Also, several counselling sessions for her family helped to boost our morale in managing this case. Still the greatest challenge was the actual delivery day.
“After anesthesia fitness and a very high risk consent, we took the patient in the operation theatre for caesarean section with adequate blood, ready and consent up to hysterectomy, in case of torrential bleeding. Considering the location of the fibroid, we were prepared to take a modified incision avoiding the fibroid. There was a very high risk of intraoperative bleeding due to the fibroid. For this, all preventive measures were taken. We posted the patient for elective caesarean section on March 1 at 37 weeks of gestation under spinal anaesthesia.”
