Pnd?

[covewove71]

Think I might have pnd but not sure. Son is 9 months. I had a difficult birth and didn't feel love for him immediately. I felt it later for a while but now feel mainly frustration with him. I think it is part boredom which kicked in around 6 months. I will be working part time soon which might help with boredom. We go out a lot to baby groups etc. I have met lots of nice mums but find it hard to take it further than hellos and chats. I am paranoid that mums won't want to spend time with me/in my home and I feel that my bad mood and difficulty making mum friends will have a negative affect on my boy

[princessvikki]

I cant really guess if you have PND or not, but I had it mildly with my dd and really didn't want to got to the gp and get stuck with pills . After a bit of research I found that it has been strongly linked to lack of omega 3, I took a supplement for a while and it did the trick so it mite be worth a try for you, even if you don't have pnd it won't do you any harm

[covewove71]

Thanks princess. Suppose I am not expecting anyone to diagnose. Just wondering if the docs/hv are likely to help or if it is not serious enough. Also interested to hear if anyone has had similar experiences

[Lonz]

When my son was born, I never went to any baby groups because I didn't feel like I was in that 'mummy group', I just thought they'd judge me and I felt inadequate, like I wasn't a real mum. I didn't feel a bond to my newborn son and even hypothetically wondered about getting him DNA tested! Silly. I didn't feel my son was mine until about 5 months on when he started to look like me.
It might be worth joining The Birth Trauma Association on Facebook as you said the birth was difficult. Your feelings may be linked.

[covewove71]

Thanks for reading and replying Lonz. When I wrote down my feelings about other mums in my original post, they seemed a bit silly, but they are real enough to stop me making good friends. Did things improve for you over time? Did you start going to groups?

I will look into that Facebook group. I was lucky in that I was able to go back to the hospital and talk through the birth with a manager there. This was helpful and has helpedme come to terms with the birth to some extent.

I think maybe I am just exhausted and need to take more regular breaks

[misskipper]

My dd is 8.5 months and I had a straight forward birth, she began sleeping through a couple of months ago and is a happy baby. I, on the other hand, have become increasingly teary, argumentative and feel out of control of my emotions. According to oh this has been getting worse in the last few months.

Is this pnd? It's overwhelming and severely affecting my relationship with oh.

I hope you're doing ok op xxx

[LD29]

Hi all, symptoms of pnd are the same as normal depression:
Change in appetite- up or down
Change of sleep- wakening v early and difficulty getting over
Poor concentrating
Lack of motivation
Loss of interests
Struggling with things u used to find easy
Everything's a struggle, even lifting sock!
Staring at the shower for an hour before getting in
That sort of thing
Hateful place.
Medication and running helped me. Good luck!!

[Lonz]

As of now, I have found the courage to seek help and find it easier to talk about only recently. I've always had an anxiousness when anything to do with babies and birth came up as they triggered me, still do. But like I said, I recently realised what was wrong and since then I've been able to understand the reasons I felt that way and my behaviour and emotions. I've come a long way since, just a few weeks or so, and began the process of coming to terms with it all. And I'm happy with how things are turning out (even being able to post in Postnatal Health for a start!).

I've never been to a single baby group as my son is now three and is at nursery. HV tried shoving them down my throat but I just couldn't. By the time I realised I was suffering it was too late to be honest, so I feel I ruined that time. All that time I was in denial and didn't want to be around any other mums or babies at all. Even birthdays were hard for me. I hope I can celebrate his 4th with true happiness. I have my first therapy appt next month. I'm determined to do well with it.

[covewove71]

Well done for taking the first steps Lonz. That is great. I had counselling a while ago before being a mum and it was very useful. Good luck with everything.

From that description LD I am probably not suffering from pnd, at least not all of the time.

Missskipper, sorry you are feeling that way, is there anyone you can talk to?