Helping my aunt

[OrangeBlankets]

My aunt has mental health issues and she's pregnant at 45. She won't be allowed to keep the baby and the medication she's on may already have harmed it.
I don't know how to help. Her carers won't do anything.

Why won't she be allowed to keep the baby? And some medication does harm babies in utero but mental health teams can swap medication or adjust doses etc

I'm assuming if she has carers she may have other health concerns too? Or be particularly severely mentally unwell currently?

She can't look after herself, she is very unstable. She can't live independently. I want to talk to her about her options without being leading but she doesn't really have a grasp of reality at the best of time

If she can't live independently presumably her carers are aware of the pregnancy?

It's a difficult one, you've said mental health Vs mentally challenged and it's going to ultimately be difficult- legally, I would think there's a duty of care by her carers to inform social services if she chooses to keep the baby. Whether she's allowed and how will be for a social worker to assess and decisions can be surprising

I was extremely unwell during my pregnancy (hospitalised for my mental health, not particularly in touch with reality) 10 years on I'm a solo parent and I have full custody. I had some extra specialist support at the beginning.

She's 45 and if she has no children yet, this is last chance biologically - as practical as termination may sound, her beliefs and wishes will be respected if she chooses to continue with the pregnancy

Ultimately maybe push it that she needs prenatal care until she reaches a decision and let her GP confirm the pregnancy and get things rolling I guess

She has an adult child who helps care for her when she's home sometimes. She didn't bring her up though, she wasn't able to do that. My aunt thinks she will be able to keep the baby and live with the father but he's in a secure unit, currently sectioned.

Okay so she won't be able to live with the father while he's sectioned, but sections don't last forever and lots of people who later have custody of their children have been sectioned. If he's in a high security ward, he probably has committed a crime that he's serving a sentence but if it's simply "secure" as in a locked ward he will be able to leave once well enough and the section ends and quite possibly she will but this will all be up to social services to assess

I was in a mother and baby unit at first - trained mental health nursing care 24/7 with trained psychologists who helped with bonding and parenting skills and trained nursery staff until deemed well enough to go home with my baby. While I was there, several of us passed assessments and went home with our babies but several did not and the babies were removed by social services but parents still had some opportunities left before it became forced adoption and visits still happened with the children

The best thing is to get the GP to confirm the pregnancy, inform social workers and begin the assessments since she clearly wants to keep the pregnancy. There are mother and baby units for the first year of a babies life but they are highly sought after placements and the earlier the better for any hope of being offered one