Where did you/your partner initially ... - Action on Postpar...
Where did you/your partner initially go for help or advice when PP started? (select as many as are relevant)
Please select all that apply:
Initially my husband phoned my midwife but it was a Sunday & she or my GP wasn't available. He had no idea what what was wrong, what he should do or where to go for help! Later that evening he called my mum, who came round & realised something was very wrong. She took all 3 of us straight to A&E where I was seen immediately. I was placed in a private room in the maternity ward with my baby for 2 weeks, where the midwives were supported in my treatment by a Crisis Team. I'm so thankful I was treated there & not separated from my baby!
When I first realised something was terribly wrong I rang my GP, who immediately got the local community mental health team involved. They passed me over to the Crisis & Home Resolution Team (CHRT) so I'd have out of hours help over the weekend. In that time I saw a few midwives and many mental health professionals. I had phoned a friend who is a qualified and experienced psychotherapist at various times (once at 2 in the morning!). None of these people recognised the now obvious signs that I was at the beginning of postpartum psychosis. I'm sure they all felt I just needed to get some sleep! (I hadn't been able to fall asleep or lose consciousness, even for a moment, since the night before I went into labour.)
Crunch time came in the early hours of day 4. The psychosis took hold. The Crisis team couldn't come out to our house (they have since apologised because they would have been there if it weren't for staff shortages which we didn't know at the time). So our only options were to either wait till 9am the following morning (this was impossible given the state I was in) or phone for an ambulance. This is what we did. The trip to A&E was extremely traumatic and I wish to this day we'd had help at home before I was admitted to the psychiatric hospital. There should be a better and clearer route into care for women with PP. Sometimes A&E can't be avoided so I was glad to learn a while back that the teams in my locality that service the emergency admissions to A&E have since had specific training in PP. I hope they continue to be aware of the signs of PP so that the trauma I endured does not have to be the experience of another woman.
I wish I had had an A&E service more like that of HKPhooey who has posted above - perhaps if we had gone in as a whole family and taken my baby they would have seen the connection, who knows? Not once was I questioned about the fact that I'd just had a baby 4 days earlier. I mourn for the weeks I was separated from him. Looking at his early baby pictures is still painful.
A further thought in terms of where we turned to next ....
Once I had a diagnosis with PP, my family felt really lost and only had the internet to turn to for information, which back in 2007 didn't have anything really useful or encouraging on PP*. They ended up being put in touch with an expert in PP through a family friend. That conversation became their lifeline because they were told I would recover and that there was hope.
*This is why APP's main site and this PPTalk site here at Healthunlocked is invaluable in my eyes. I wish that my family had been able to turn to these pages for advice and support 5 years ago.
I self diagnosed as a health professional with mental health knowledge and got it confirmed via NHS UK symptoms by my husband and advice from emergency midwifery helpline and went to A+E.
Hi Jlou84
Thank you so much for taking time to share your experience of recognising PP. I wonder how your experience was at A&E as we hear from other families that often A&E staff lack training in PP and there can be long delays in accessing an admission to hospital or MBU. How were things for you?
It’s really helpful to hear from mums a number of years after our CEO Jess first asked the question as it helps us to find out whether awareness of PP in midwifery and emergency services is improving. Thank you again, Naomi
My partner called nhs111 and they told him to take me to a&e as it was the evening so gp was closed. We left our 1 week old son at home with my mum. Once there they put us in a separate waiting room away from the other patients as i was flipping out. We waited around 5 hours only to be told that there was no-one on site able to deal with a mental health emergency and wouldn't be until the morning. So he took me back home for the rest of the night, which was pretty unpleasant and scary for everyone. The crisis team came in the morning (not sure how this was arranged tbh), and i agreed to go to an acute psychiatric unit.
Hi jen5678
Thank you so much for your courage in describing this experience. I am so sorry to hear that your treatment in A&E was so poor- you and your husband must have been exhausted and scared, only to be sent home for the evening. As a charity, we recognise that improved training for A&E staff needs to be a priority.
Were you able to move from the general psychiatric unit to a MBU at all? I know for me in 2005 and 2011 there was no nearby MBU bed so I too went to a general psychiatric hospital.
Thank you for sharing your story to help us raise awareness, and continue to campaign for better early support and recognition of PP as a psychiatric emergency.
Naomi
So this was in April 2019 but I was at home and I knew something was wrong but didnt know what. My husband and took our days old baby back to the midwifery unit where he'd been born early hours of the morning. I was assessed on site a little later that morning and by evening all of us where en route to a Mother and Baby Unit (UK)
Hi Irishgirl1710
Thank you so much for sharing your experience of early recognition and assessment for your episode of PP. Did you feel well supported by the midwifery unit while waiting for assessment? How was your experience of the MBU - with I guess being very far away from home?
APP continues to work with local organisations in Ireland to campaign for MBU beds, thank you so much for sharing some of your story.
Naomi
So actually my son was born in Edinburgh which is where I've lived since 2013. I'm aware of how different it would've have been if he'd been born in my native Northern Ireland.In terms of awaiting assessment there's a midwife who stood out as she was assigned to us. She made me tea and just kept reassuring me, then she travelled in my taxi with me to the MBU 22 miles away from home. Although I was quite ill by this point (I can remember thinking the taxi was a simulation) she kept me quite calm as my husband and baby travelled with his mum by car ahead of me.
Wow that sounds like you had such a great & compassionate midwife to accompany you. I know I have never forgotten the staff who showed kindness and humanity during my own time in general psychiatric hospitals. Thanks for sharing your experience.
