Children of overworked mothers become ill more often

Overworked mothers often have children in need of treatment
If mothers are overburdened, not only will they get sick, but also their children, according to the key message at the presentation of the current data report of the mothers' recovery center (MGW) in Berlin. Many children whose mothers were on a course of the MGW in 2014 were therefore also in need of treatment.

According to the MGW, "about 80 percent of exhausted or burned out mothers suffered from around 50,000 mothers taking part in the maternal and child health measures of the Müttergenesungswerk 2014". Of the 72,000 accompanying children, two thirds also reported that they needed treatment. The diseases of the mothers are therefore obviously related to the diseases of their children.

If the mothers are overburdened and exhausted, their children also show more and more treatment-poor complaints. (Image: Superingo / fotolia.com)

Overuse of the mothers weakens the social system "family"
Many mothers are still mainly responsible for the family work and are in "a permanent congestion situation with time stress and high expectations pressure", so the announcement of the MGW. Member of the German Bundestag and chairman of the board of trustees Dagmar Ziegler explained that mothers are often overburdened by the large number of requirements and expectations. "The constant back and forth between children, household and work has become a Bermuda triangle for mothers, in which their own needs are lost, they become ill," Ziegler continued. The result is a weakening of the social system "family" and thus also the children.

Many accompanying children on the Kurmaßnahme in need of treatment
This is also reflected in the current data report of the MGW. The diseases of children are often associated with stressful family situations, in which apart from the respiratory diseases (26 percent) in particular the mental disorders (23 percent) such as behavioral problems, emotional disorders or ADHD have significantly increased, reports the MGW. Out of a total of 72,000 accompanying children, 18 percent had experienced pathological family situations such as separation and mourning or also experiences of violence.

Interactions between the health of mother and child
"We know that the treatments of mothers and children interact with each other and are directly related to the health of children," explains MGW Managing Director Anne Schilling. Here, the individual development of strategies suitable for everyday use to minimize pathogenic factors during the course of treatment and the follow-up offer provide lasting help to mothers and children, continued Schilling. The holistic and maternal-specific concept of the curative measures of the maternal healing work explicitly took into account the mother-child relationship. (Fp)