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Mother baby unit psychotherapy
PIP parent Infant psychotherapists have joined the team at an inpatient unit for mothers and babies at the Homerton hospital. These mothers have suffered a serious mental breakdown in the peri-natal period and are being cared for alongside their babies by a multi-disciplinary psychiatric team.
The parent infant group psychotherapist works within the ward to help create a group experience between mothers and babies. The group creates a baby centred, fluid and playful atmosphere in which particular attention is given to babies’ experience, and any behaviour which supports a baby’s relationship to its own mother is reinforced. Mothers can regulate their involvement by dropping in and out, enabling those who are quite unwell to benefit at their own pace. All staff are welcomed to get involved and to contribute and the psychotherapist shares her observations of mothers and babies with them.
Focus
A mother and her baby may be referred for a series of therapeutic consultations with a parent infant psychotherapist, which are both a clinical intervention and assessments of the mother baby relationship. Typically the mother and her baby are seen together and sometimes the baby’s father is also invited to join them. The focus is on the growing bond and attachment between them which has been disrupted by the mental illness of the mother. Sometimes the mother baby couple need ongoing support and treatment when it has proved more difficult to get their relationship back on track and a referral post discharge to local infant mental health and peri-natal mental health services will be sought.
Work with staff
The PIP psychotherapists involvement in the unit also includes running a staff support reflective processes group and an observation group to think about the dynamics taking place in interactions between mothers, babies and staff on the ward.
Contact Us
For further information please contact Sara Mitchell on +44 (0)20 7794 2313 or email sara.mitchell@annafreud.org
The parent –infant psychotherapy sessions are commissioned by the Homerton Hospital NHS Trust.
