What is the Mother's Act?

The Mother's Act is a piece of legislation that is attempting to have all pregnant woman in the nation screened for mental health issues. Through very ambiguous concepts, this legislation is based on the natural mood changes a woman goes through during pregnancy and after the birth of her child, despite the fact mood changes are not new to women, or the men that live with them during the life-changing occasion of pregnancy!

The Bill contains the fraudulent and unscientific language that psychiatry is famous for, found in psychiatry's bible, The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, in order to create further ambiguity. This manual tells us that the natural moods a woman goes through after the baby is  born has actually been deemed a mental illness.

The Mother’s Act calls for funds to administer mental health questionnaires to all women before they leave their birthing centers and during their first year of postnatal checkup visits. These questionnaires are subjective, meaning they are open to interpretation by the psychiatrist evaluating the answers.
 
The multiple-choice questionnaire will include questions such as these:

I have felt happy:
 Yes, all the time.
 Yes, most of the time. This would mean, “I have felt happy most of the time” during the past week.
 No, not very often. Please complete the other questions in the same way.
 No, not at all.

If the mother is deemed to have postpartum depression she will be referred to a mental health provider, a psychiatrist, mental health counselor, etc. This will include inpatient services. In the state of Florida, often those inpatient services are in the category of involuntary commitment.

It has been statistically proven from other mental health screening programs that most of the people who answer these questionnaires are diagnosed with a mental health disorder and placed on mind-altering, dangerous drugs.

There is a sentence in the Bill that all should beware of; it calls for an "integration with other programs." These integrations could pop up in any one of many other ordinary activities or community services. This is up to the vested interests that are proponents of this Bill.

There will be a parallel research plan that is drawn up; meaning, all mothers whom the Federal Government subjects to the Mother’s Act will essentially become guinea pigs for “research.”

Why is the Mother's Act being debated at all?

The Mother’s Act hinges itself on a piece of truth and that, in itself, perpetuates the two sides of this issue. Women do experience hormonal changes while pregnant and after the birth of their child. This is proven to be medically true.
 
Yet, there is no evidence, scientifically or medically, to show that giving mothers psychotropic drugs will benefit them or their children. The FDA even has an Adverse Event Reporting System, also known as MedWatch. Their statistics show that 1,031 abortions, miscarriages, and other deaths were reported between 2004 and the second Quarter of 2008 in which the listed psychiatric drug was identified as the Primary Suspect Drug (an FDA term) deemed responsible for the abortion, miscarriage, or death.

The facts speak much louder and clearer than the appeals for money from those who will financially benefit from this legislation and those who support such a psychiatric screening and drugging program.  

In the case of one very vocal mother, Amy Philo, the mental health questions and the psychiatric drugging led to near tragedy!

Amy's Story

The story beigns when Amy had her first child, Isaac. He was two days old when the hospital asked her to bring him back for a jaundice check. The doctor said to give her son a baby formula. He threw it up, fell asleep, and his skin began to turn blue. Amy called 911 and took her son back to the hospital. Rescue efforts were successful, yet caused quite a bit of stress for Amy; Isaac almost died and she had a panic attack.

A home health care person told Amy she needed an antidepressant to handle it. Amy had never taken psychotropic drugs before and she had reservations, but went to her doctor, talked with him for two minutes, and he handed her a 50-mg.-sample packet of Zoloft. There was no warning label on it. She was concerned to breast feed while on the drug, but the doctor said it would maker her baby happy too.

She was on Zoloft for three days and began to hallucinate about killing her child. The next morning she went to the hospital and checked herself in with homicidal and suicidal thoughts. She was given a mental health-screening test, asked some questions, and was committed to the psychiatric ward for two days. She was told she had to go to see a psychiatrist. The dosage of the psychiatric drug was increased. The Black Box warning came out soon after that, and Amy went off Zoloft and she felt much better.

Amy Philo never had anything called PostTraumatic Stess Disorder. She had Zoloft-induced, psychosis.  Before she was given Zoloft, she had appropriate anxiety due to the fact that her son almost died. 

Psychiatric screening depends on a fraudulent diagnostic system that often clouds and covers up actual medical conditions that could be handled if correctly diagnosed.  This is the concern regarding the Mother’s Act. Psychiatric screening could prevent pregnant women and new mothers from receiving the actual medical care they need to help them through their pregnancies, childbirth, and postnatal care.

For hundreds and thousands of years, women have been having babies. Now psychiatry has made an effort to hook its claws into one of the most important populations of our nation, mothers. For mothers are responsible for bringing the youth into this world and the youth are the adults of tomorrow.

What Can You Do?

Visit Amy Philo's website at www.uniteforlife.org. Watch her YouTube video and contact your legislators to let them know you oppose this intrusion into your family's safety and well being. Once you watch Amy's video you will know, without a doubt, that we all need to stand up and ensure the Mother’s Act does not become enacted.

You can find the full text of the Mother’s Act at: http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-s324/text

Contact the Citizens Commission on Human Rights of Florida for more information at 1-800-782-2878.