Perinatal Assessment

[LittleBambie]

I'm 13 weeks pregnant and have an assessment with the perinatal team on Friday and I'm absolutely terrified! I always knew I'd be referred to the services before embarking on this journey but I'm worried that my past will be used against me. I have a complex trauma history and have had a long struggle to get this far with many hurdles along the way.

Please can someone let me know what to expect... is my whole history likely to be dragged up? Only I'm worried that I will get triggered and have a flashback or dissociate and this will look terrible on my part and that other people's evilness and wrongdoings will be used against me in some way... I don't dissociate now like I used to, unless extremely triggered and talking about the traumas is a huge trigger for me!

If there's anyone with experience who may be able to offer some insight that would be much appreciated 🙏

I had a perinatal assessment during pregnancy. Are you under the care of any other mental health professionals? It was pretty surface level for me because I already had a psychiatrist who continued to treat me during pregnancy. I refused to talk about trauma which had caused my PTSD and mainly just kept it factual (what meds I was on, what birth options I wanted). For me, it was an opportunity to get them to support my need/desire for an ELCS.

Thank you for taking the time out to reply. I have only had brief treatment since being discharged from Springfield's traumatic stress service in September 2022 as there unfortunately wasn't a step down in care and the treatment actually made things 10 x worse for me!

I struggled for over a year trying go get additional help and on an 18 month waiting list with RASASC (I am due to start around the same time as I'm due to give birth). I tried to put things in place before getting pregnant but unfortunately the help just wasn't available. Now that I've come this far without the help I feel I am strong enough to deal with things alone and no longer want any help or support. The support wasn't available when I needed it and I've proved to myself how strong and resilient I actually am... I am under the support of my GP only.

I think they asked an overview of my history so what diagnoses I had and when I got them and medication I was on.
They asked about recent history and how I was finding pregnancy
They spoke about what they could offer me
I had the assessment with a cc who ended up being my cc
After the assessment I didn't hear from them until 30something weeks then I had an assessment with the psychiatrist and of this she wrote me a birth plan requesting I had a private room and my partner to stay overnight, that baby would need a little extra monitoring due to my meds and i might need help overnight due to medication. She arranged for me to get the full 30 days input from the midwife teams and they arranged for me to see the same person as much as possible. I had an appointment with the psychiatrist arranged for after the birth.
From this time I started to see the cc regularly. Unfortunately for me I did get unwell after my daughter was born and I was under the perinatal team for the full year and I spent some time in a mother and baby unit. I happy to answer any questions you might have about that too if it would help

Thank you so much! This was really helpful! I have my appointment with the consultant psychiatrist tomorrow morning and just need to face it - even though every inch of me wants to run a mile!

Good luck! I hope it goes ok