PND help

[Notanotheroneaboutcovid]

I have a 10 week old beautiful baby, sleeping and eating well, all round a content and happy little one. I can’t believe how lucky I am to have such a wonderful baby!

Despite this my mood has dropped significantly over the past few weeks.

Im getting more sleep than I thought I would and I’ve been put on iron tablet, but they haven’t made a difference yet. I have a supportive husband, he’s an excellent dad and does a lot round the house too. On paper I have no reason to feel like this, but I feel exhausted, extremely irritable, on the brink of crying most of the time,

Does anyone have any tips/ advise for how they coped with PND? How long till you started to feel better?

Please know it’s totally normal to feel this way.

Glad your getting support and sleep. Iron tablets can be hard to digest so maybe try a mouth spray version, and get lots if other vitamins in your diet, like vitamin c from juice etc. and talk to your gp. They can check hormone levels and do another iron test for you. Plus raise the PND. Make sure you’re okay.

Walking, reading, listening to music all help. Make sure to have some chill time too. It can be intense with young babies.

Everyone is different, so just see how you go and don’t be afraid to ask for help if you need it x

I've been there OP, my advice would be to speak to your GP and ask to be referred for counselling. It really helped me.

Speak to HV, I found them intimately easier and more understanding than gp (& easier to access!) and they can often direct refer into postnatal support services. You shod be fast tracked for counselling etc being postnatal but to be honest I found great relief in just off loading to my HV. I ended up on medication which took about two weeks to begin to lift the fog and got better bit by bit after that.

It's a HUGE life change, don't underestimate just getting your head around that and theentla toll that can take -even if you have a 'good' baby xx

Thanks for the replies.

I assumed it would take ages to get a counsellor on the nhs?
I have problems with my stomach anyway, so iron tablets can be a nightmare! I haven’t heard of a spray, but I’ll enquire.

In the past when I’ve been on antidepressants I tend to feel awful for the first 2-3 weeks before getting back to baseline then another few weeks before I seen an improvement. I’d be worried about feeling any worse tbh. I also wasn’t sure about breastfeeding and taking tablets?

I feel awful for feeling this way, everyone always says how lucky I am to have such a “good” baby.

I hate the saying “good baby” as if a baby who cries is being bad.

Iron and vitamin oral spray are available on Amazon. Search for Better You. Much gentler.

Definitely chat with your hv/gp.

If you have a wait to see a counsellor, find someone irl that you can talk to openly. This will help.

Don’t feel bad about baby being good, and know it’s okay to feel down. Your body has been through a lot. You just need time and space to recover mentally and physically.

You gp will advise what AD you can take whilst feeding.

Sending hugs 🤗

Just be careful with sprays as the dosage is way way lower than a therapeutic dose of iron you are prescribed for iron replacement/aneamia. They can take a month or so for you to feel any difference depending on how low your iron is. There are different types of iron your go can prescribe, usual is ferrous sulphate - there is also ferrous gluconate, ferrous fumerate which anecdotally many people have less gastrointestinal side effects from (guidance says there's no difference but in my experience many patients are better with am alternative).

There are some very good options regarding antidepressants while breastfeeding, one that is considered safe, effective and has years of use/studies is seetraline or some other SSRI's.

Postnatal women are entitled to fast tracked support via peri/post natal mental health teams but even so if you let your health visitor know they can also up the support.

Part of PND is feeling ashamed or guilty for how you feel, but remember it's all symptoms of an illness and NOT reality. This too shall pass, it might not be straight away but it absolutely will and with support and help it will get better even quicker xxx