This study addresses the question “Are mothers easily worried?”:
“Mothers are Easily Worried,” Cynthia M. Illingworth and Ronald S. Illingworth, Archives of Disease in Childhood, vol. 59, no. 4, April 1984, pp. 380-4. The authors, at Children’s Hospital in Sheffield, UK, explain:
“Mothers are easily worried and this cannot always be avoided. But mothers are often worried unnecessarily by insensitivity, unwise choice of words, failure to determine what they are really concerned about, by criticizing them for being over anxious and ignoring their fears, or by inadequate explanation and counselling. Much anxiety is caused by unwise remarks in an assessment clinic or by a doctor’s failure to know the normal and abnormal variations in development, behaviour, or physical growth and physical features with resulting unnecessary medicines, surgery, or special investigations. It is easy to implant a feeling of guilt by putting the blame for a child’s behaviour or handicap on the parents. Screening procedures in the newborn may cause much parental anxiety.”
(Thanks to investigator Robin Abrahams for bringing this to our attention.)