Going to drs today for suspected PND - scared they’ll take my baby away

[Choosethisusername]

Sorry was going to put this in chat but it’s so quiet on there at times.

DD is 14 weeks old and I thought I was doing ok but I’ve suddenly spiralled badly past week.

Can you even get PND so late after birth?

Put this in health even 🤦‍♀️

Well done for being brave enough to seek help. Please don't worry, nobody is going to take your baby away. Tell your GP exactly how you are feeling, write it down if it helps. There is support out there & you are doing the right thing. You can get PND late after the birth - my DS was six months when I was diagnosed & got the help I needed. In my case it was a short course of antidepressants, which was just enough to get me back on track. Hope all goes well

I have PND and I was worried they would take my children away. They made me answer a questionnaire which asked if I had thoughts of harming myself and them and they asked if I was caring for them feeding them etc. No one has ever suggested that they would take them from me and I was told they only would if they thought the children would be harmed but that is a last resort.
I hope your appointment goes well 💐

PND can take several months, even years to develop after birth.

Well done you going to your GP. They won’t take your baby away.

You will be ok. I’ve been where you’ve been. I had PND with my third.

I remember walking into my doctors and all I could say was, “I think I’m going mad” and then I just cried. I remember just feeling the darkness would never go away and I would never be happy again. I thought my husband would leave me and take our children.

But I did get better. Anti depressants and CBT. It wasn’t suddenly better, but more you look back and think this week was better then last.

I’m absolutely fine now.

Please don’t worry. You are not going to lose your DD. You’re so doing the right thing! PND is very common and it is treatable, it won’t go away overnight but you are on the first step to recovery.

I'm a GP. Unless your child is in danger, nobody's going to take them away, I promise. As long as you're managing to feed and change baby, and don't have plans to harm baby, there won't be a safeguarding issue.

It's very common to get PND around 3 months postnatally.

Your GP will probably refer you for some kind of specialist input, either for talking therapy or to a postnatal mental health team. They may start medication. Some medication is safe for breastfeeding, so don't worry if you're BF.

Your GP will probably also tell your Health Visitor so they can offer additional support.

Good luck. You're doing the right thing getting help.

I was profoundly suicidal. They didn't take my baby away. Be honest and take the advice they give you. You will get through this, I promise

You won't lose your baby. I had postpartum psychosis followed by pnd and tried to leave ds in NICU...and no one took him away from me. They just wanted to support us as a family and help us get through the dark bit.

What support do you have at home? I know it's really hard especially at first but I found baby groups really helped. Getting out, talking to other mums who were also struggling and drinking a tonne of coffee just made everything feel a little less daunting.

I got therapy on the NHS and although I'm still technically under a psychiatrist 4 years (and another baby later) I only see him once every six months or so now.

Yes you can. I was diagnosed at 7 months. They are not going to take your baby away I promise (This was one of my big fears too, I get it). You have done brilliantly to seek help, tell the GP everything, do not refuse medication (like I did!) if the GP.thinks it is needed.
One of the things that helped me was a local PND support group, see if you can be referred somewhere like that. Good Luck.

When ds was 7 months......

I agree with all of these posts. I was diagnosed when DS was 7 months and hospitalised for 6 weeks. I was breast feeding (and thought formula was poison ) and there was no space in the nearest mother and baby unit. So the NHS put me up in The Priory where we had round the clock supervision. Thank you NHS.

The most important thing is to take your time to talk and feel better. The right place for your baby is with you.

Social care are so overstretched that unless your baby is in immediate danger of harm, or likely to suffer significant harm (not developing, being hurt by someone, never being clean, being constantly ignored.....), there will be no need to keep them safe somewhere else because you're already doing that by getting help.

I'm a social worker. We have no parents on our cases that just have pnd... none.

If there are safeguarding worries, it is really only if your baby is likely to die today that they'll be looked after by someone else as a first port of call...

Well done for plucking up the courage to get help.

Thanks all.

Just waiting to be seen now. Just in the waiting now crying as I feel like it’s something else I’ve failed at. I couldn’t breastfeed DD either which is another reason I feel like I’ve failed in addition to the birth.

My relationship with DH isn’t great atm and I don’t want to leave her with my mum (I wouldn’t trust my mum with my dog let alone my baby)

I’m also sad because I had wanted a few children but if I have PND this time I’ll get it next time

Sorry just rambling now

I ASKED them to take my baby away when I had severe PND... I thought I was the worst person in the world.. and they still didn't!

But they did give me meds, and support and helped me climb slowly back out of the black hole I was in.

Well done for going. It WILL be ok,

Incidentally I had PND with my first and last and was fine with the middle two,.. it doesn't follow you will have it again.

Be kind to yourself x

Sending kind thoughts

Hope you got on OK.

Just to add, when I had PND it was after DC3. I was OK with my first two. So it doesn't mean you'll get it again. It was being unable to breastfeed DC3 after managing to with my first two that triggered my PND, it was horrible at the time but I did recover fully. Please don't think you've failed at anything - you are doing your best

Thanks again all and thank you for telling me your stories

DH isn’t being supportive but I can’t tell if it’s mood or him. He didn’t seem to care when he was told though.

Been given some antidepressants, dr wants a follow up next week and I need to ring my HV on Monday