Appointment with psychiatrist

[Laneybug1710]

Hello

I have appointment with my psychiatrist by phone later this morning. Been considering a second pregnancy, what plans can be put in place to minimise risk of second case of Post partum psychosis?

Also experiencing residual anxiety could occasional medication be helpful?

Just thought it would help to pose these questions here also

[Jocelyn_at_APP Partner APP]

Hi Laneybug 1710,

Thank you for reaching out to us. Exciting times for you and I can totally understand you being anxious too.

APP has a great insider guide for planning a second pregnancy. It can be found here:

app-network.org/wp-content/...

I would be really honest with how you are feeling with your psychiatrist and see what they suggest medication wise.

This is a really good website for taking medication during pregnancy:

medicinesinpregnancy.org/Me...

I hope that helps a little bit. Good luck for later and we are here for you!

Jocelyn

[Maria_at_APP Moderator]

Hi Laneybug1710

There are quite a lot of things at our disposal to try and reduce the risk of pp repeating on a second pregnancy. There will be lots of support in place and monitoring. I don't know about you but my first episode of pp came out of the blue and I believe our ignorance towards the subject delayed us in getting help. Knowledge about early warning signs will be so helpful for us the second time around, and we should be able to get professional help much faster too if we need it.

I attended a preconception counselling meeting early last year as I am also planning a second pregnancy, and it was a good chance to get some information about medication during pregnancy and after birth. The resource that Jocelyn shared is very useful too.

I think it is very understandable to feel anxious at this time. I have taken medication for anxiety for a short period of time but I also found that talking therapy helped me a lot. Is that perhaps something your psychiatrist can refer you to?

Hope the meeting goes well today, take good care

[Lilybeth Volunteer]

Hello Laneybug1710

I’m sorry to hear you had PP with your first child. I hope the phone appointment with your psychiatrist went well this morning and you were able to have time to to discuss your anxiety too.

If you are in the UK and considering a second pregnancy, as well as the good links already given, APP offer a Second Opinion Psychiatry Service to which you can be referred by your Psychiatrist or GP. The link is app-network.org/what-is-pp/... and is free to the NHS referring Trust and yourself.

Take care and be kind to yourself.

[Carmen25]

Hi Laneybug1710I had PP after the birth of my first child. 3 years later I had my twin girls and was fine.

Here are some of the things I had in place that I think helped me:

I had an advanced directive setting out what I would like to happen in the event of becoming unwell again

I chose a friend who was willing to act as my advocate should I not have the capacity to do so myself. The friend was trusted by both me and my husband to act with my best interests

Sleep was a major issue for me with my first child so we agreed that I would feed the girls between 6am and 11pm (I was breastfeeding) and my husband would sleep in a separate room with them at night and do the night feeds. We did this for 2 months until he needed to go back to work

I was lucky to be able to see a psychologist at my GP practice and had regular meetings with her throughout my pregnancy and first few months after the girls were born