Denial of pregnancy and neonaticide: A historical overview and case report.
acute dissociative reaction
borderline personality disorder
denial of pregnancy
neonaticide
newborn skull fractures
shaken baby syndrome
Journal
Journal of forensic sciences
ISSN: 1556-4029
Titre abrégé: J Forensic Sci
Pays: United States
ID NLM: 0375370
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
Mar 2023
Mar 2023
Historique:
revised:
02
01
2023
received:
15
09
2022
accepted:
03
01
2023
pubmed:
23
1
2023
medline:
4
3
2023
entrez:
22
1
2023
Statut:
ppublish
Résumé
While denial of pregnancy and neonaticide are rare, they are potentially associated and share some risk factors. Neonaticide has been proposed as the extreme outcome of a denial of pregnancy. However, the process leading to such a possible outcome is not yet fully understood. The primary goal of this essay is to examine the various definitions and ambiguities surrounding the denial of pregnancy. The case of a young woman with a history of two denied pregnancies with diverse characteristics and outcomes, the latest of which resulted in neonaticide, is then reported and examined. A forensic psychiatric evaluation was also performed to reconstruct the woman's mental state at the time of the crime. The forensic pathological analysis of the newborn, abandoned near the sea while still alive, is described. The victim's body showed signs of shaken baby syndrome. We contend that differing levels of awareness during a denial of pregnancy might not be predictive of the potential delivery outcome in terms of threat to the newborn's survival, according to the forensic pathological and psychopathological data of the current case. Early identification of women affected by denial of pregnancy who pose a danger of committing infanticide is hampered by both intrinsic traits (dissimulation, unawareness, low propensity to seek assistance) and environmental factors (isolation, low socioeconomic level, poor education.). A previous history of denial of pregnancy should activate health and support services to reduce the potential risks for the mother and the child.
Identifiants
pubmed: 36683010
doi: 10.1111/1556-4029.15202
doi:
Types de publication
Case Reports
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Pagination
688-695Informations de copyright
© 2023 The Authors. Journal of Forensic Sciences published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Academy of Forensic Sciences.
Références
Spielvogel AM, Hohener HC. Denial of pregnancy: a review and case reports. Birth. 1995;22(4):220-6. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1523-536x.1995.tb00262.x
Condon JT. The spectrum of fetal abuse in pregnant women. J Nerv Ment Dis. 1986;174(9):509-16. https://doi.org/10.1097/00005053-198609000-00001
Resnick PJ. Murder of the newborn: a psychiatric review of neonaticide. Am J Psychiatry. 1970;126(10):1414-20. https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.126.10.1414
Mauriceau F. Traité des maladies de femmes groffes et de celles qui font accoucher [Treatise on the diseases of pregnant women and those who have given birth]. Paris, France: Ed chez l'auteur; au milieu de la rue des petits champs; à l'enfeigne du bon médecin; 1681.
Gould GM. Anomalies and curiosities of medicine: being an encyclopedic collection of rare and extraordinary cases, and of the most striking instances of abnormality in all branches of medicine and surgery, derived from an exhaustive research of medical literature. Philadelphia, PA: W.B. Saunders; 1897.
Bécache A, Becache S. Un déni de grossesse: aperçus psychodynamiques [Denial of pregnancy: psychodynamic insights]. Paris, France: Lyon Médical; 1976.
Seguin S. Dénis et négations de grossesse: Une revue de la littérature [Denials and denials of pregnancy: a review of the literature]. Psychiatr Enfant. 2013;56:267-92.
Le Bayle B. Déni de grossesse, un trouble de la gestation psychique [The denial of pregnancy, a disorder of psychic gestation]. Manila, Philippines: ERES; 2016.
Wessel J, Gauruder-Burmester A, Gerlinger C. Denial of pregnancy-characteristics of women at risk. Acta Obstet Gynecol Scand. 2007;86(5):542-6. https://doi.org/10.1080/00016340601159199
Kinzl J, Biebl W. Disavowal of pregnancy: an adjustment disorder. Am J Psychiatry. 1991;148(11):1620-1. https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.148.11.aj148111620
Del Giudice M. The evolutionary biology of cryptic pregnancy: a re-appraisal of the “denied pregnancy” phenomenon. Med Hypotheses. 2007;68(2):250-8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mehy.2006.05.066
Friedman SH, Heneghan A, Rosenthal M. Characteristics of women who deny or conceal pregnancy. Psychosomatics. 2007;48(2):117-22. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.psy.48.2.117
Wessel J, Buscher U. Denial of pregnancy: population based study. BMJ. 2002;324(7335):458. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.324.7335.458
American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. 5th ed., Text revision. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Publishing, Inc.; 2022. https://doi.org/10.1176/APPI.BOOKS.9780890425787
Strauss DH, Spitzer RL, Muskin PR. Maladaptive denial of physical illness: a proposal for DSM-IV. Am J Psychiatry. 1990;147(9):1168-72. https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.147.9.1168
Miller LJ. Maladaptive denial of pregnancy. Am J Psychiatry. 1991;148(8):1108a. https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.148.8.1108a
Beier KM, Wille R, Wessel J. Denial of pregnancy as a reproductive dysfunction: a proposal for international classification systems. J Psychosom Res. 2006;61(5):723-30. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychores.2005.11.002
Neifert PL, Bourgeois JA. Denial of pregnancy: a case study and literature review. Mil Med. 2000;165(7):566-8.
Slayton RI, Soloff PH. Psychotic denial of third-trimester pregnancy. J Clin Psychiatry. 1981;42(12):471-3.
Delong H, Eutrope J, Thierry A, Sutter-Dallay A-L, Vulliez L, Gubler V, et al. Pregnancy denial: a complex symptom with life context as a trigger? A prospective case-control study. BJOG. 2021;129(3):485-92. https://doi.org/10.1111/1471-0528.16853
Spinelli MG. A systematic investigation of 16 cases of neonaticide. Am J Psychiatry. 2001;158(5):811-3. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.158.5.811
Miller LJ. Denial of pregnancy. In: Spinelli MG, editor. Infanticide: psychosocial and legal perspectives on mothers who kill. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association Publishing; 2003. p. 81-104.
Jenkins A, Millar S, Robins J. Denial of pregnancy: a literature review and discussion of ethical and legal issues. J R Soc Med. 2011;104(7):286-91. https://doi.org/10.1258/jrsm.2011.100376
Bonnet C. Adoption at birth: prevention against abandonment or neonaticide. Child Abuse Negl. 1993;17(4):501-13. https://doi.org/10.1016/0145-2134(93)90025-z
Marinopoulos S, Nisand I. Pregnancy denial: they give birth without being pregnant. Paris, France: Eska Publishing; 2015.
Gonçalves TG, Macedo MMK. A desautorização do processo perceptivo na negação não psicótica da gravidez [The disavowal of the perceptual process in non-psychotic denial of pregnacy]. Rev Mal-Estar Subj. 2016;11(4):1521-46.
Gonçalves TG, Macedo MMK. Non-psychotic denial of pregnancy: a psychoanalytical comprehension. Rev Interam Psicol. 2014;48(1):23-9.
Sandoz P. Reactive-homeostasis as a cybernetic model of the silhouette effect of denial of pregnancy. Med Hypotheses. 2011;77(5):782-5. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mehy.2011.07.036
Brezinka C, Huter O, Biebl W, Kinzl J. Denial of pregnancy: obstetrical aspects. J Psychosom Obstet Gynaecol. 1994;15(1):1-8. https://doi.org/10.3109/01674829409025623
Kenner WD, Nicolson SE. Psychosomatic disorders of gravida status: false and denied pregnancies. Psychosomatics. 2015;56(2):119-28. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psym.2014.09.004
Wessel J, Endrikat J. Cyclic menstruation-like bleeding during denied pregnancy. Is there a particular hormonal cause? Gynecol Endocrinol. 2005;21(6):353-9. https://doi.org/10.1080/09513590500463832
Brown E, Barglow P. Pseudocyesis. A paradigm for psychophysiological interactions. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1971;24(3):221-9. https://doi.org/10.1001/archpsyc.1971.01750090027004
Spinelli M. Infanticide: psychosocial and legal perspectives on mothers who kill. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association Publishing; 2003.
Miller LJ. Psychotic denial of pregnancy: phenomenology and clinical management. Hosp Community Psychiatry. 1990;41(11):1233-7. https://doi.org/10.1176/ps.41.11.1233
Kaye NS, Borenstein NM, Donnelly SM. Families, murder, and insanity: a psychiatric review of paternal neonaticide. J Forensic Sci. 1990;35(1):133-9. https://doi.org/10.1520/JFS12810J
Meyer CL, Oberman M, White K, Rone M, Batra P, Proano TC. Mothers who kill their children: understanding the acts of moms from Susan Smith to the “Prom Mom.”. New York, NY: New York University Press; 2001.
Dailard C. The drive to enact ‘infant abandonment laws’-a rush to judgment? Guttmacher. Policy Rev. 2000;3(4):2.
d'Orbán PT. Women who kill their children. Br J Psychiatry. 1979;134:560-71. https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.134.6.560
Oberman M. Mothers who kill: coming to terms with modern American infanticide. Am Crim Law Rev. 1996;34:2-109.
Silva JA, Leong GB, Dassori A, Ferrari MM, Weinstock R, Yamamoto J. A comprehensive typology for the biopsychosociocultural evaluation of child-killing behavior. J Forensic Sci. 1998;43(6):1112-8. https://doi.org/10.1520/JFS14371J
Mendlowicz MV, Rapaport MH, Mecler K, Golshan S, Moraes TM. A case-control study on the socio-demographic characteristics of 53 neonaticidal mothers. Int J Law Psychiatry. 1998;21(2):209-19. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0160-2527(98)00003-x
Ludwig J. Principles of autopsy techniques, immediate and restricted autopsies, and other special procedures. Handbook of autopsy practice. Totowa, NJ: Humana Press; 2002. p. 3-6. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59259-286-9_1
Mendlowicz MV, Jean-Louis G, Gekker M, Rapaport MH. Neonaticide in the city of Rio de Janeiro: forensic and psycholegal perspectives. J Forensic Sci. 1999;44(4):741-5. https://doi.org/10.1520/JFS14547J