ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the processes that lead to the state’s removing children from mothers who are labelled mentally ill. In CAS of Hamilton-Wentworth v. M.M. there is considerable language acknowledging the value-laden ideals of motherhood, and the order returns the child to the mother. Women most vulnerable to a process that undermines their fitness as mothers are those who are already marginalized. The minimal notice requirements for the post-apprehension court appearance in child welfare legislation is another way that the process has a specific negative impact on women who are hospitalized in a mental health facility. The resulting ‘victory’ for women is a judicial endorsement of the need for psychiatry to monitor them as mothers and a prescriptive mandate for monitoring to continue. Women with mental histories tend to lose their children on the basis of psychiatric opinion.
