Baby blues- when do they end? And when to start worrying about them being PND?

[Minkus]

Posting on behalf of a very dear freind. I've also put this in the childbirth and parenting topics as I'm not sure which one was best!

Her gorgeous little boy is now 9 days old, and she's suffering a bit with feeling very low. She had a fairly traumatic labour over a couple of days, ending up in an emergency c section.

She's said that she's just progressively feeling more and more down- it's not her little boy that is giving her cause for concern (he's feeding well, sleeping as well as can be expected for a 9 day old) and she seems to have bonded really well with him (her words). I was really lucky in that I didn't have more than a few days of feeling a bit teary and emotional and so I don't want to give her the wrong sort of "there there" soothing and clucking supportive noises as I've not experienced her sadness.

She was in hospital for a week before giving birth (trying to induce her, delaying it etc etc) and she didn't get much good quality sleep in the 7 days or so before her ds was born. And of course compounded on top of that is the inevitable broken sleep of a new parent.

I think that once she gets a little bit more refreshed that will help (ok so that might not be for a while though), and she's undergone an emotionally and physically trying time and that she should be kind to herself and not expect to feel "normal" any time very soon- she's wondering now though how long she can expect to feel this way.

She's suffered from panic attacks in the past though and has had a couple in the last few days and is now worrying (don't know if excessively or not) that this is starting to morph into PND. She's also completely lost her appetite (very unlike her) and forcing herself to eat for sake of her boy, as she's breastfeeding, and this is worrying her too.

She tried to talk to her mw (who is pretty dismissive anyway, she's also my mw so know what she means) yesterday about it who brushed it off with a "yes thats normal" but I kind of feel that my lovely buddy needs some more reassurance than that.

Don't really know what the purpose of this post is but would love to be able to go back and give her some of my fellow mnetters esperiences that might help her feel less alone.

[minipinkscottish]

Has your friend had a baby before? If you are going to have PND you often have it recurring. I have had PND every time and as you know Minkus I'm now on number 6. Medication is brill and even in the short term your friend could benefit from this....get her to talk to GP as I also have found that some midwives are a bit dismissive especially in the early days and really the sooner it's treated the better.xxxLOL to you and your friend xx

[Minkus]

Hey Minipink! Thanks for advice, I'll talk to her later on today and gently suggest it, see what she reckons. This is her first and so she has nothing to compare it to. I so feel for her, this baby was long awaited and her and her dh were so excited, I know parenthood isn't often the rosy glow we imagine it to be before our first one but I think she's feeling a bit despondent about that too. Ta MP, see you on the July antenatal later no doubt