Relevance of Maternal/ Gestational History in Homeopathic Case Taking

Homeopathic treatment takes into consideration the origination of the illness, the development of disease. It is not okay for us to not know why you got the disease you’re suffering from, not just because we’re curious, but because our treatment depends on it.

In cases where it is clear how a specific stress or a bad phase was responsible for the development of the chronic illness you’re suffering from, say when a woman is diagnosed with hypothyroidism and we do trace a longterm period of mental suffering before her physical health started getting affected. Or, when a clear accident is responsible for the broken bones, we don’t need extraordinary investigation to find the cause of disease.

So, when the cause is evident, lesser extent of interrogation is required, but there are cases of developmental disorders that children are born with, with no convincing reason of why this child had to suffer from this. In those cases, when enough symptoms are not present to prescribe on the basis of them, we have derived immense useful information from the mother’s history during pregnancy, her stress, her adaptation and reaction to the stimuli around her while being pregnant: and we have found it equally reliable to prescribe on, as is the mental history in an adult’s past. Basically, the child’s history can be derived from the mother’s maternal history, in cases where it is needed, and it does work like the extension of the same person.

I first used this in a case of SLE (Systemic lupus erythematosus) in a child. SLE is an autoimmune disease where the immune system of the body mistakenly attacks healthy tissue. It can affect the skin, joints, kidneys, brain, and other organs. It is a serious condition and can even be life-threatening in situations where people’s vital organs are affected.

So, the girl child with SLE had severe rashes and pains over her body, along with symptoms of deterioration of kidney function. Since it was a serious illness and was progressing very rapidly, I needed to be sure of the prescription, and could not base it only on her current symptoms, which were pretty vague. Tried delving in the mental space, but the girl was too sick to be able to answer my questions, and the case was taken over a call, as they were from a distant village and couldn’t visit clinic. Not having got enough information, I decided to get maternal gestational history from her mother over a call, and asked her to describe in detail, her pregnancy and the physical/ mental difficulties during the gestational period. She was hesitant at first, but on being convinced that it was important for my case and for the health of her daughter, she went on to describe how she never wanted this child to be born, and spent the entire pregnancy praying that the child dies in uterus before delivery, because the family wanted a son and her in- laws had made it clear that if it were a daughter, they would disown her, since the couple already had 2 daughters before this child. Fearful that it could be a girl, she did not want a child at all, thought life would be easier if the child died beforehand, than being tortured later, and these thoughts stayed with her for most of her time being pregnant. She would cry, be afraid of the dark and ghosts, earlier was very social and jovial but was depressed during this phase, preferred being alone, until our patient’s birth, and later her husband was able to convince his parents to not dump the child, so they still had her, but the girl started getting sick and they found she had this disease which was stated incurable by the village doctors.

I prescribed Phosphorous to the girl, in 200C, followed by LM Potency and within a month, all her symptoms were gone. This was based on the mother’s mental symptoms while being pregnant with the patient.

This is just one of the many cases where maternal history was used for prescription, but this does instil greater belief in this method, in cases that do not make themselves clear.

They also show how important it is, for pregnancy to be a state of stress-free period, for the mother, to deliver a disease-free child. People understand the importance of diet and to some extent, overemphasise its function, where what matters more, is constantly ignored. (Mental health)

So, my word to all women planning to conceive, is to actively take care of their mental health during gestation, and for all men around them- to assist them in being able to do so, instead of stressing them out even more. Thank You.

Dr Prachi Dua