THE MOTHERS ACT: A VIOLATION OF INFORMED CONSENT

Once again the MOTHERS ACT has been reintroduced in both the U.S. House of Representatives (H.R. 20 introduced Jan 6th 2009) and the U.S. Senate (S. 324 introduced Jan 26 2009)

This bill quite simply is a feeder line for the psycho-pharmaceutical industry and will result in more mothers and infants being put at risk for being prescribed antidepressant and other dangerous psychiatric drugs documented by the U.S. FDA to cause birth defects, psychosis, mania, worsening depression, suicidal and homicidal ideation.

The Melanie Blocker Stokes MOTHERS Act is a federal bill named after Melanie Stokes, a woman who suffered emotional difficulties after giving birth and was subsequently prescribed a cocktail of intensely controversial psychiatric drugs including anti-psychotic, anti-anxiety, and anti-depressant drugs before being subjected to electroshock treatment.

Melanie Stokes was in the mental health system, was prescribed drugs, was hospitalized, was subjected to the still barbaric practice of electroshock and only after receiving mental health “treatment” did she commit suicide. That is what the mental health industry did for a new mother named Melanie Stokes. It is incredible that a story such as this does not raise alarm bells within Congress on the negligence of prescribing cocktails of psychiatric drugs to new mothers, drugs documented by the US FDA and international drug regulatory agencies to cause not only a host of documented adverse events for adults, but also for the unborn children of pregnant women who incredibly, are being prescribed these drugs even during pregnancy.

(click to enlarge) Adverse Drug Reactions Reported to FDA's MedWatch

(click to enlarge) Estimated SSRI Side Effects

Despite psycho pharmaceutical rhetoric about the need for more mental health treatment of pregnant women and new mothers, the fact remains that the most common treatment for women diagnosed with postpartum depression is drugs. There is absolutely no language in the Mothers Act that will ensure mothers being “screened” for postpartum depression are granted the most fundamental right of “informed consent,” meaning, per the legal definition, they are warned about all the risks of the proposed treatments and all the alternatives. So much for the rights of mothers.

Proponents of the bill, including Pharma front groups and other vested interests, claim this won’t happen. So the public is supposed to believe that the same vested interests which have been exposed for downplaying or denying the dangerous effects of antidepressant and antipsychotic drugs for more than a decade should be trusted. The public is supposed to believe that because new mothers are screened for a specific condition called “postpartum depression” (which has as its main treatment, drugs), does not mean that they will A) be prescribed them, or B) won’t be warned that the drugs prescribed to help them could in fact result in worsening depression, psychosis, mania, suicidal and homicidal ideation, stillbirths or birth defects if prescribed the drugs while pregnant.

The opposition to the Mothers Act is simple. It violates informed consent. It is a psycho/pharmaceutical friendly bill, not a consumer friendly bill. And those who support it either don’t understand the fundamental right of informed consent, or have made their allegiance clear.

Stress Testing the MOTHERS Act

http://www.naturalnews.com/026229.html

by Kelly Patricia O’Meara:

It seems these days that everything is a test. Yes, the powers that be have decided that taxpayer benevolence now is contingent upon passing a stress test. But much to the dismay of those being tested, the results may reveal, for example, that the nation’s financial wizards and auto giants are actually bankrupt midgets and unworthy of America’s support.

Given that officialdom has embraced the stress test as a barometer of future viability and success and a determinant for public financing, it seems reasonable to request that other important issues that very personally impact the health and welfare of the American people be subjected to similar stress tests. There is none more deserving of stress testing than the proposed MOTHERS Act.

On the surface, the MOTHERS Act reflects its sponsors overwhelming compassion and empathy for women suffering from alleged mental health disorders resulting from childbirth – often referred to as Postpartum Depression. But when one conducts a brief stress test on important sections of the legislation, taxpayers may find that this costly and sweeping mental health legislation actually fails women of America, but goes a long way in inflating the balance sheets of one of the most lucrative industries in the nation – big Pharma.

For instance, the MOTHERS Act legislation that currently is pending in the U.S. Senate states that

Mothers Act: Bad Movie Rerun

http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/04/mothers-act-bad-movie-rerun/

by Evelyn Pringle / April 15th, 2009

The promotion of the Mother’s Act is like a rewind of a bad movie dating back to the 1960’s when rock stars were singing songs about “mother’s little helpers.”

Women fought for years to gain acceptance of the fact that many female health problems were real and not symptoms of hypochondria. The psycho-pharmaceutical cartel’s profit-driven invention of an epidemic of pregnancy-related mental disorders will wipe out a century of work toward

Motherhood and the Psycho-Pharmaceutical Complex

Mothers Act Fuels Multi-Billion Dollar Industry

By Evelyn Pringle

Motherhood has fallen prey to the psycho-pharmaceutical complex. If new legislation known as the Mother’s Act becomes law, the drugging of infants through pregnant and nursing mothers will no doubt increase.
Congress has rightfully refused to pass this bill for eight years.

Mental health screening targets moms-to-be

Source: http://wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=93766

YOUR GOVERNMENT AT WORK

Questionnaire will be used to determine ‘depression’ in patients

A bill that would subject pregnant women to mental health screenings – and possibly medications that would follow any diagnosis of “depression” – has returned and already is more than halfway through Congress, a concerned family group is warning.

WND reported a year ago when the plan was proposed to allow the government to order tests on mothers for baby blues. The proposal later died.

However, officials with United Nonprofits and Individuals for Truth and Ethics say the bill is back, and it already has been approved by the U.S. House and assigned to a

SSRI Birth Defects — “I Had No Idea”

Source: http://www.lawyersandsettlements.com/articles/12082/birth-defects-ssri-side-effects-lexapro.html
By Lucy Campbell

Alameda, CA: Christy was taking an antidepressant when she became pregnant, and, like hundreds of women, didn’t think anything of it at the time. In fact, it was only recently when she started doing some research that she began to wonder if her daughter’s heart condition could be an SSRI birth defect.

“My daughter was born about 5 weeks premature,” Christy said. “She was in the hospital for

Paxil Birth Defects — The Never-Ending Vigil

by Lucy Campbell

Source: http://www.lawyersandsettlements.com/articles/12048/paxil-birth-defects-ssri.html

Springhill, FL: Kristine’s son was born without incident – a healthy baby boy. He is now 4 years old and was recently diagnosed with a condition that could kill him if his parent’s aren’t vigilant. It turns out he was born with this condition, and Kristine wonders if the Paxil she took while pregnant could have contributed – could it be a Paxil birth defect?

Use of Antidepressants May Increase Risk of Heart Problems in Women, New Study Finds

Source: http://www.attorneyatlaw.com/2009/03/use-of-antidepressants-may-increase-risk-of-heart-problems-in-women-new-study-finds/

Drugs for the treatment of severe depression, which are prescribed to tens of millions of Americans each year, may increase the risks of sudden cardiac death and fatal heart disease in otherwise healthy women

Birth Injury Lawyers Show True Effects of Associated Drugs

http://www.bestsyndication.com/?q=node/24059

Birth injury lawyers are trying to gain awareness about certain pharmaceutical drugs that cause severe birth complications when taken by women who are pregnant. The fact of the matter is that birth injury lawyers want to make known that these drugs did not have warnings as to the negative effects of taking the drug while pregnant. A common drug in this category is Paxil, manufactured by

MANDATORY MENTAL SCREENING FOR POSTPARTUM DEPRESSION — THE BRAVE NEW WORLD OF COERCED DRUGGING By Dr. David W. Tanton, Ph.D.

Dr. David W. Tanton

In a large number of expectant mothers, once they give birth, an often profound feeling of loss and depression sets in. This, as knowledgeable doctors, nurses and midwives know, is normal since the shared circulatory system that existed between the mother and the baby with all of its attendant hormones created a “high” that is missing once the baby is

SSRI birth Defects: Why Weren’t Warnings Issued Sooner? by Lucy Campbell

http://www.lawyersandsettlements.com/articles/11869/paxil-defects-birth-side-effects-12.html

Valley Home, AK: When Susan (not her real name) gave birth to her now 5-year old son, he had a lung and heart deformity. Susan had taken the anti depressant Zoloft, albeit briefly, during her pregnancy, and given all she’s subsequently read, now wonders if her son’s birth defects are