Ok, when I saw this section of the forum, one story came to mind. While I was working, in a maternity ward, this story came up because we didn't want it to happen to us. But...what got me was this women's diagnosis of PTSD. I felt that this gave negative publicity to PTSD. Some news articles say PTSD, and others say PTSS (sydrome instead of disorder). At the time, only a year after my PTSD started, I felt humiliated. I had told my co workers about my diagnosis. Most of them didn't even know what it was. Then the second time they heard it, it was in this article. Some even asked me about it.....what can I say? I was really embarassed. What do you guys think?

By the definition of PTSD for diagnosis, this would not fall under it. This is one of those diagnosis that is misdiagnosed, and should have been something like PTSS. PTSS is different from PTSD, though both exist. PostTraumatic Stress Syndrome is the curable version of PTSD, basically it is still being exposed to a traumatic event, though not of a nature that would cause lifetime effects.

Many physicians misdiagnose PTSD, and then many don't diagnose it when it is applicable, because they have little understanding what it is. Most physicians, whilst qualified in their field, are not necessarily qualified adequately to diagnose PTSD, being something that is at the upper end of the spectrum, hence it serious nature.

Piglet can tell you about this, and many others here, as many are simply not diagnosed correctly, instead given some half way diagnosis because the physician has no real scope of what PTSD even is within a person. The question you ask, is that if this person went to a trauma clinic, where there are specialist in PTSD and know it back to front, would this person then be diagnosed with PTSD? Most likely not. The same goes with people who believe they have PTSD, but a constantly being misdiagnosed with other anxiety disorders. Send them to a specialist in PTSD, and they will know soon enough if they actually do have it or not, and whether the other physicians diagnosis was correct or not. Many physicians specialise within their area, even though they are qualified to diagnose across the board, it doesn't mean they know what they are doing. Its like a GP (General Practioner), where your doctor is a doctor, they are not necessarily capable of performing major surgery on someone in their clinic, nor should they be. This is a good example actually, because GP's know their bounds, and they send you to an expert within the field that your illness relates, and not attempt to fix you themselves, thinking they know everything about every illness and treatment. Mental health is much the same, except physicians think they know everything to diagnose all illnesses.

I'm with Anthony on this one. I'm interested to know of the outcome of this case though. Sounds like they would be better suing for negligence and injury to feelings/psychological injury, but not ptsd. Apart from the fact that having tried so long for a baby, it's hardly surprising that the mother is super-anxious about losing it, regardless of the mix up or not. Fathers generally don't tend to have the same level of protective feelings as mother's (note I say "generally" here, before the forum is filled with insulted fathers!), so maybe that's why the partner is so pissed off, because his other half is concentrating on the baby and not him!

I have attempted to stay away from this post as I am not sure that I can be objective. Anthony and I discussed this post tonight and I do not necessarily agree with Anthony's assessment of the situation. Having longed for a child, having that child take a while to conceive and still breastfeeding leads me to the conclusion that she could well suffer from PTSS, perhaps not PTSD. I would consider this event to be quite traumatic if it happened to me. Breastfeeding is not simply an act of a mother feeding her child. There are way more physiological and psychological goings on that would be at stake here. The simple fact that mothers and babies can in most cases identify each other by smell less than 12 hours after birth clearly indicates that there is more to breastfeeding than is on the surface.

Yep, we did at that, and now I just reread the above, and it makes me even more sceptical.

When Johnson was discharged, she was still concerned as to whether she was bringing home the right baby. DNA testing later confirmed the baby's identity, but the lawsuit claims Johnson has post-traumatic stress disorder, and is unable to return to work because she is obsessed by the possibility that she may lose her baby. She is unable to take anti-depressants because she is breastfeeding Emily, who is now nearly five months old.

So, they are actually sueing because apparently, he can't have sex with his wife now? Secondly, she is claiming to have been diagnosed with PTSD after what I read above as a "natural birth perceived", as she there is nothing about an actual traumatic occurance at the birth, nor even talk about a life threatening occurance during the birth, all of which would be need to be actually diagnosed with PTSD.

My discussion about this with Kerrie-Ann led me to explain what criteria one must have to be capable of being diagnosed with PTSD, which basically means, you couldn't even have it unless something like the following happens.

Do you think the reaction of a woman being given the wrong baby to breastfeed, as a unique case, could cause or falls within, the actual guidelines above quoted from the DSM IV-TR to be clinically diagnosed with PTSD? Maybe, just maybe, what she suffered was traumatic to her, but by no means falls within the stated guidelines for diagnosis of PTSD, however; it most certainly does fall within the guidelines of PostTraumatic Stress (PTS) or otherwise known, PostTraumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSS), one in the same. PTS is curable, which means she will get over it, where PTSD is not curable, and a person will never get over it, past it, or around it.

Unless there are circumstances previous to this which is unbeknown to the court of law that this is prevailing, a lawyer could have a pretty good time with this diagnosis of PTSD in this case, because if they sent her to trauma specialists, they could just get a more accurate response in regard to diagnosis, instead of any old physician with little to no experience with PTSD making the call for diagnosis themselves, as many seem to do... misdiagnose that is.

Thanks for all of your responses. I appreciate your honesty. This is quite an old story, and I haven't heard anything from it. I doubt it ever saw the courtroom because hospitals and healthcare almost always settle. After this article, the hospital I worked at installed a new system that would play a lullaby each time a mother came close to her baby. If it was the wrong baby, the alarm would go off like a fire alarm. Same if the baby remotely came near an exit, the alarm would ring and a computer system would tell you the location and which baby instantly. (kinda scary, uh?) We also have bands that we check numbers between mom and baby. Even with all of these regulations, we have had babies switched. It happens very easily. Imagine a nursery with 12 babies in it with four of them crying. Four nurses pick up four girls. Then another nurse comes in and wants to put another baby in a corner and rearranges the room. It is very easy to put a baby in the wrong crib. We usually catch it before the crib leaves the nursery, but we got close once by going into the mother's room and then realizing the mistake when the bands were checked. I know this sounds scary. The best way to not have this happen to you is to have your baby with you at all times. (I think that's good advice anyway...) Another part of the article I don't understand is why it took them twenty minutes to find the right baby???? I would think that would be a few minutes, five at most.

Well, anyway, thanks for your input. I think to agree that this is NOT a case of PTSD. I breastfed both my children for combined five years...so I know the bonding that occurs, but I also think that I would be more distraught if my baby was breastfed by someone else, and not vice versa.

Now thats an interesting thought to this? A well presented thought Nam. Your absolutely right, what about the actual other mother who's baby was breastfed by another woman? I know this is normal in some tribes, ie. aborigines will do this, and some African tribes, but not generally a western culture type scenario, mentally and physically that is.