Psychic Disorders of Pregnant Incarcerated Women during and after Pregnancy
By Konstantina Kotsaki MSc, Forensic Phychology* Based on 2012 evidence more than 200.000 of 700.000 incarcerated women were held in USA prisons [1]. The USA has the highest number of incarcerated women compared to international imprisoned women [1]. It reached circa 1/3 of global women kept in prison [1]. The psychic disorders - mainly depression and anxiety - accompany pregnancy even in nonincarcerated cases [2-5]. Therefore, the presence of psychic abnormalities during pregnancy is predictable and unavoidable. Contrary to that, the development of these disorders depends on many variables, is unpredictable and avoidable. A vulnerable psychic state comprises a criminal’s characteristic feature [6]. It gets clear that the incarcerated women experience psychic abnormalities before beginning their sentence in prison. Thus, when transferred to prison many women had already initiated to experience grave psychic disorders [7]. No health care service was available to many women before i...
