Hi Everyone
I’m sorry if this isn’t posted in the correct forum, I’m new to Mumsnet. This is a long one but I’m hoping that someone might have some advice.
I am currently 6-7 weeks pregnant with my second child and my first child is nearly 3.
The Dad of both children is my long term partner who left me when he found out about this pregnancy. He has made it clear he does not want another child and abortion is the only option for him. I am happy to be a single Mum.
The issue I have is in my first pregnancy I was very unwell. I had antenatal psychosis which progressed into post partum psychosis when I gave birth. By the time I was diagnosed I was too unwell to be in a mother and baby unit so was separated from my newborn for three months.
I had severe allergies to a lot of the psychiatric medication so it took a lot of trial and error to find treatment that works.
To cut a long story short my illness triggered social services involvement and they recommended that my child should live with his Dad. I didn’t disagree with this as it the time I was severely unwell.
I had a lot of issues with social services painting me as a ‘danger’ to my child. I had assessments, supervised contact and was even sent for ‘learning disability’ tests. I do not and have never had a learning disability, I was just incredibly psychiatrically unwell.
I passed all assessments but social services kept circling back that due to the fact I had post partum psychosis I was still a risk to my child.
They literally closed the case one day after 6 months on a child in need plan and I never heard from the again (not even a letter to say they had closed the case). I know everyone says ‘I was treated badly my social services’ but I genuinely feel I was.
There is a child arrangement order in my ex partner’s name, my child lives with him. Social Services verbally told us that it was down to my ex partner to decide how often I should see my child and whether he felt it should be supervised or not.
To be honest, up until a few weeks ago this wasn’t an issue as we were together. I often stayed at my now ex partners house and had lots of time with my son.
Will Social Services get involved again? Or will they only become involved if I become unwell. Realistically I am only a ‘danger’ if I become poorly with post partum psychosis again. I will be under mental heath midwifery team this time and will have much more support, so if something does go wrong it will be addressed quickly.
Does anyone have any advice? Thank you