Postpartum Depression and Anxiety by Sonya Watson

Author:Sonya Watson
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: eBook ISBN: 9781911246336
Publisher: Trigger Press
Published: 2017-03-16T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 14

YOU ARE NOT ALONE

Sonya: It’s not easy to finish my story. I’ve started writing this so many times. I talk about these things with mums every day, but I think I’ve struggled with bringing my own story to a close because in some ways, it really does feel like the end of the journey. And it’s been more emotional than I was expecting; I’ve gone into more detail than I would at conferences. It’s exposed a lot of raw emotion and brought some of that old anxiety back.

Unfortunately, postnatal depression will never go away in the world. There’s never going to be a permanent fix. But I think that we, as a community and as parents, need to break the stigma. We need to break the silence around mental health, antenatal depression and postnatal depression. We need to help support our mums and our dads and our families because it’s a road that no mother or child should ever have to travel alone, without support, love, empathy, and understanding. They should always be supported.

I think that we’re starting to get there, but we’ve still got a long way to go. We need to be able to ask a mum those important questions: ‘Hey, how are you doing? Are you okay? I’m not asking about the baby now – are you okay?’ We need to be prepared for the answer. As you’ll have read, it was really tempting to put that mask on and say, ‘Yeah, I’m coping.’ But actually, deep down inside, I wasn’t coping at all.

Thank God Kathryn could see through that. And from time to time I know that I still put that mask on, but I try to avoid that as much as possible.

This process has shown me that we need to spread understanding about mental health. It’s okay to have mental health issues in a family. So we – as a community, as a country, and as a world – need to support our families when they’re going through this. And really, it’s quite easy to do. The mums that I see each week reach out for support, but it would be so much better if they’d known they could have reached out sooner. Wouldn’t it be so much better if new mums and dads started out on this journey knowing that it is okay to ask for help?

You don’t need to be brave. You don’t need to put on your mask. You don’t even need to be a Super Mum. There are services out there that can help. I know that a lot of these services would benefit from more funding, – like anything to do with mental health. But there are people out there who will listen. And they will help.

If you’re reading this because you’re worried about a new mum, then take the time to ask her if she’s okay. Look her in the eye and be prepared for the answer that she’s not coping. We can’t know what goes on behind closed doors at home.

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