Worry Over Pregnancy

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31774, 3 September 1968, Page 26

Worry Over Pregnancy

(N Z. Press Association)

HAMILTON, Sept. 2. Worry over unwanted pregnancy played a significant part in the production of mental and emotional disorders in some women, said Dr H. E. Bennett, super’’ntendent of Tokanui Psychiatric Hospital, today.

Dr Bennett was commenting on a claim by Dr M. F. Fahey, in the latest issue of the “New Zealand Tablet,” that many women who sought psychi-

atric treatment were suffering from mental depression resulting from the birth control issue.

Dr Fahey wrote that of 1275 women treated as outpatients at a major New Zealand psychiatric hospital in the last year, 578 were Roman Catholics. The basic cause of the various illnesses whjch forced them to seek treatment was mental depression resulting from the birth control issue.

“1 know it’s a staggering figure, but it is reliable,” Dr Fahey said. Dr Bennett agreed that one of the things women who presented themselves for admission to psychiatric hospitals.

or at outpatients’ clinics were worried about was unwanted pregnancy. In these cases, he said, he had no hesitation in prescribing the use of a birth-control pill. “However, if you are dealing with a person whose religious convictions preclude the use of the pill, you are in something of a quandary. There is not much you can do for them,” Dr Bennett said. “I never try to persuade a Roman Catholic to go against the teaching of her church, but I have no hesitation in prescribing the pill to Roman Catholics if they have no objection to its use,” he said Worry about unwanted pregnancy played a significant part in the production of mental and emotional disorders in some women, but this worry was by no means the whole story. In many cases, other stresses and strains were involved.

The possibility of an unwanted pregnancy often initiated a mental depression. As a result, a woman did not have the strength to cope with other possible stresses, he said.