Mothers’ experiences of perinatal obsessive-compulsive disorder

ABSTRACT

Introduction

Perinatal obsessive-compulsive disorder (POCD) is characterised by the presence of intrusive thoughts resulting in significant distress and urges to execute repeated behaviours occurring in the perinatal period. POCD is largely understudied and existing literature has mostly studied POCD quantitatively.

Objective

This qualitative study explores the experiences of 10 mothers randomly selected from a larger sample (N = 251; 86.8% White) who met high risk criteria based on the Postnatal Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (POCS≥16). These mothers were interviewed about their experiences with POCD retrospectively.

Results

Qualitative analysis of the interviews (n = 10) revealed three main themes regarding women’s experiences with POCD: 1) obsessions (i.e. safety, cleanliness), 2) compulsions (i.e. excessive checking for safety, excessive cleaning, researching information online), and 3) other emotional experiences (i.e. fear, panic, anxiety, suicidal ideation, guilt, shame, irritability/anger).

Conclusion

Mothers at high risk for POCD report obsessions and compulsions as well as other emotional experiences that are distressing, demonstrating the enduring impact of POCD beyond the perinatal period.

KEYWORDS:

• Obsessive-compulsive disorder
• perinatal
• anxiety
• OCD
• pregnancy
• postpartum

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. Other measures of depression, anxiety, and distress were used but will not be analysed in this study

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the The George Washington University’s Luther Rice Research Fellowship [N/A].