Hi, I’ve been a member on here for ages but only posted a handful of times. I read a lot of the posts and the thoughtful replies and feel refreshed at the knowledge of some members!
I had pp after the birth of my son in March 2016, I was fortunate enough to respond very well to treatment and did not need to go to an MBU.
I stayed on olanzapine for a while after but managed to successfully wean a few months later and have not been on meds since.
Like many that had pp it turned my life upside down and changed my perception of myself and those around me. More than two years on I still don’t feel like my old self completely.
Olanzapine made me gain a lot of weight which I only lost half of. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking with it!
I’m now trying for another baby. At what point do you speak with mental health professionals about staying well while pregnant and strategies for reducing risk of it happening again.
I had a very anxious pregnancy last time after recurring miscarriage and had terrible insomnia all pregnancy.
Any advice welcome, thanks
Written by
ZacsmumLou
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Lovely to hear from you. I'm glad the forum replies have been helpful as you dip in and out I had my sons six years apart as it took me a while to feel fully recovered. So I can understand that after only two years you might not feel back to your old self completely.
You have probably read some of my posts in that my episodes were a long time ago. I think that's very good advice to go to your GP for a pre-conception chat so that you can be signposted to further care. I also came across a post "Second baby - hoping to prevent PP" at healthunlocked.com/app-netw.... Although it was written a few years ago there are some good links which might be helpful.
Take care .... it's so important when we get our mental health back to look after ourselves
It's great to hear that you're doing well and reached a stage where you want to try for another baby. I hope that you are able to stay emotionally well through the process. It can be a stressful time even not accounting for the risk of PP.
I think it's a good idea to speak to somebody as soon as possible. I suppose services vary across areas but hopefully there is somebody appropriate. Another option is to seek advice from Professor Jones who is based in Cardiff but can do a skype consultation. (Have a look on the APP website for details of how to do this, I've done it before and found it helpful)
I too had PP in 2016 and personally have found it has taken me a lot longer than I expected to get back to "normal", I have continued to have symptoms of anxiety and depression and am still on some medication. I have recently decided to write an account of what happened to me, in part because a writer friend is thinking of using it to inform a fictional piece she wants to write. This has been really challenging for me on an emotional level, however it has also triggered me meeting with the midwifery manager for my local hospital to give feedback. I discovered that actually there is a perinatal mental health midwife now which was really reassuring to me as I consider one day trying to conceive again.
It's difficult enough when you've experienced a miscarriage before, even getting pregnant at all may be a source of worry. I have had a miscarriage and I found it so difficult coming to terms with that and then my pregnancy with my son was more worrying at the start. Especially since our area don't offer early reassurance scans which some other areas do.
There is a lot that they can do to support you to not become ill a second time so hopefully any further pregnancies will be less anxiety provoking.
Good afternoon, we are also trying for our second baby and have been told we will be referred to peri natal at 12 weeks. We were initially told we were need a preconception planning meeting but apparently this only applies if you are still on any medication hope this helps x
I had my second son in 2016 and fortunately stayed well after PP in 2012.
We unfortunately don’t have a perinatal mental health team based locally, just a small amount of outreach from Stafford. I saw a mental health specialist nurse as part of my antenatal care, I think this was arranged based on the history given at my booking in appointment.
I had a consultation with Prof Ian Jones through APP’s second opinion service before deciding to have another baby however, which was really helpful, and we discussed the risks and things to consider that might reduce the risk of recurrence. With that and reading lots of helpful shared experiences on here, I was quite clued up before having those discussions with the mental health nurse. I think I might have first seen her at 16 weeks pregnant but it might have been later than that, I can’t quite remember.
The sooner you can have those discussions the better I think, if there’s a team your GP can refer you to? It will probably depend on the services you have around you.
Have you seen APP’s guide for women at high risk of PP and planning pregnancy? The link lilybeth has given above has lots of shared experience and links to the APP resources. I hope it all helps
Wishing you the very best of luck! Do ask any questions here, I got some really helpful advice from reading what plans etc others had put in place.
There’s some brilliant advice and guidance from the ladies above, so I don’t really have much more to add myself, but I just wanted to say Hi, as I’m PP “Class of 2016” too 😉 - and to wish you all the very best x
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I had my sons six years apart as it took me a while to feel fully recovered. So I can understand that after only two years you might not feel back to your old self completely.
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