ONE of the cruellest aspects of postnatal depression is that it strikes at a time when the demands on a new mother are at their most intense.

With sleepless nights, new responsibilities and a radical change to your daily routine, it is one of nature’s unkindest tricks to send your mood plummeting to a new low.

For many women the feelings go beyond what are known as “baby blues”. When postnatal depression strikes, in severe cases, it can bring on thoughts of suicide or even wishing your baby was dead.

Amanda Hizzett, 33, from Scarborough, knows what it is to feel the sudden and inexplicable darkness of postnatal depression. Not only did it hit her after the birth of her first child, Chloe, five years ago, but again when she gave birth to twins.

Her experiences, which she admits led her to consider ending her life, have now prompted her to set up a web page on the social networking site Facebook, aimed at providing support for women and their families in Yorkshire.

Remembering the weeks after Chloe’s birth, Amanda said: “It was more the people around me that noticed something wasn’t right. I suppose I knew that deep down I didn’t feel right but I just put it down to tiredness.”

Amanda said her husband, Carl, was becoming increasingly concerned by her lack of motivation to do anything, but it took an episode at the home of friend, eight weeks after Chloe’s birth, to highlight that something was seriously wrong.

“We were showing off the baby and I should have been completely at ease there but I wasn’t – I was completely on edge. I felt as if everyone was watching me and judging me as a mother, even though everyone was just chatting and laughing among themselves.

“Something just clicked and I thought: ‘I have to get out of here’.” Without warning, Amanda picked up her baby and made for the car and told her husband she had to leave.

After the events that evening, the couple made an appointment to get medical help.

“We went in to the doctors and I was just streaming with tears so Carl had to tell the doctor how I had been. The doctor asked me what I thought was wrong and I said I think I’m depressed and he said: ‘I think you are suffering from postnatal depression’.”

Amanda was prescribed antidepressants, which can about take three weeks to have an effect. She was also warned by her GP that her mood may get worse in that time before it got better – a warning which proved to be correct.

“I moved to my parents’ home in Hull because Carl was at work. Then, one night at my mum and dad’s, while Carl was staying, I started to talk about suicide.

“Luckily Carl went straight to the doctor. It was lunchtime and the doctor said ‘just bring her in to the office’.

“The doctor said to me it sounds as though I had hit rock bottom. He seemed to have a good understanding of postnatal depression.”

During the darkest days, Amanda said she often felt like two people, saying she could feel rational, getting on with the day-to-day life of a new mum. “Then I would feel completely irrational and feel I couldn’t carry on,” she said. “I found it really hard to motivate myself. I would feed Chloe with tears running down my face. I felt as though I had to give her 24-hour care or I was a bad mother.”

She said a lot of the time she relied on her mother to do the night-time feeds, and Amanda admits it was during this period of her life she entertained some of her darkest thoughts.

“I felt sometimes as though Chloe would be better off having a fatal accident and I could have my old life back.”

Amanda said during counselling she expressed those thoughts and was told the feelings were an effect of the depression and she would not actually want such a terrible thing to happen.

Slowly, with the help she was getting, Amanda began to feel better, but said it was about seven or eight months before she considered herself finally back to health.

When Amanda gave birth again, this time to twins, it seemed the postnatal depression looked set to return. However, this time the warning signs were spotted much earlier and she knew to seek treatment.

Despite the prevalence of the condition in new mums (around one in ten), Amanda is concerned at the lack of support out there for women who, like her, feel they may have hit rock bottom.

This led her to set up the new Facebook site.

She said: “On the page I have discussions covering titles such as help in the local area, useful internet sites, recommended reads, coping with postnatal depression and advice for partners, friends and family.

“I have also recently been advised by the Scarborough head of health visitors that they have been given permission to direct their patients to the page and I have offered my services to the local child centres to bring postnatal depression into their postnatal classes.”

Visit Amanda’s Facebook page, which covers Scarborough, York and surrounding areas>>

Main symptoms of postnatal depression

POSTNATAL Depression (PND) is very common among new parents and may affect as many as one in six new mothers.

Although it is rare, fathers can also get PND.

Symptoms, which can develop up to two years after the birth, include:

• loss of enjoyment and interest in life.

• feelings of depression.

• exhaustion and lack of energy.

• lack of self-esteem.

• feelings of guilt and pessimism.

• lack of interest in yourself and your baby.

• physical symptoms like headaches, stomach pains or blurred vision.

• difficulty sleeping – either not getting to sleep, waking early, or having vivid nightmares.

• irritability and tearfulness.

Another symptom in mothers with PND is thinking about harming the baby. This is very common, occurring in about half of all cases.

Mothers and fathers may also think about harming themselves.


Some useful websites

www.mind.org.uk/help/diagnoses_and_conditions/post-natal_depression

www.nhs.uk/conditions/Postnataldepression/Pages/Introduction.aspx

www.direct.gov.uk/en/Parents/HavingABaby/AfterTheBirth/DG_10037284

www.postnataldepression.org.uk/