Emotional illness in habitual aborters following suturing of the incompetent cervical os.

Previous investigation has shown that an unconscious unwillingness to accept the roles of motherhood and femininity may play a major part in the etiology of habitual abortion and frequent prematurity. Subsequent to suturing of the cervical os, delivery was successful in 9 patients with a history of 3 consecutive unsuccessful pregnancies and an incompetent cervical os. These patients were then followed to see if having, in a sense, been forced into motherhood in this manner had exacerbated any underlying emotional conflicts. The incidence of postpartum psychosis in these patients was statistically significantly higher than in a matched control group.