ABSTRACT

Psychiatric disorders are the commonest complication of childbearing and therefore have substantial public health implications. These disorders can also have profound consequences for the pregnant woman and her offspring (see Chapter 9). However, psychiatric disorders in pregnancy are under-recognized;1,2,3 and even in those women in whom mental disorders are chart-recorded by the time of delivery, it has been reported that there is a two fold higher risk of inadequate prenatal care.4