Puerperal Insanity

Puerperal Insanity. Three forms of insanity are met with in connection with child-bearing. If the mental disturbance occurs during pregnancy, it usually assumes the form of melancholia. If it affects the patient shortly after child-birth, it generally presents itself in the form of what is called puerperal mania; and lastly there is the insanity of lactation, which occurs occasionally in association with exhaustion arising from suckling. These forms of insanity are generally met with in subjects who have a hereditary tendency to mental disturbance, and recovery is the rule; but there is a tendency to relapse in connection with subsequent labours.