Mums

Marion's story - "It wasn't until my waters broke that it dawned on me that I was going to give birth within the next few hours. For months my husband Steven and I had been planning the arrival of our first child. We had planned for every eventuality; we had baby grows in numerous sizes and colours, some long sleeved, some short sleeved in case there was a heat wave in March. However, we never discussed being postnatal - but then why would we!" Click here for the full story…

Petra's story - "I had a very good pregnancy and a relatively good birth. My daughter was beautiful and healthy, everything I could have wished for. However, as time went by I started getting anxiety attacks, suffered from severe insomnia, became frightened of going out, meeting people and generally going downhill." Click here for the full story…

Charlotte's story - "My husband and I lost our first baby back in 1997 and the miscarriage made me very depressed. I didn't know how to grieve for my baby as there was no funeral or grave to go to. A year later I was expecting my daughter. The birth was very traumatic as my placenta had become detached and I was bleeding heavily. My daughter was delivered five weeks early by caesarean section. I remember thinking 'But I'm not ready yet!' Click here for the full story…

Jane's story - "I had my first child in July 2000 after an OK pregnancy except for anaemia and some concerns that he may be on the small side. His birth was fairly easy and he weighed 6lb 10 oz. The first night in hospital I stayed awake and held his hand for most of the night while he slept soundly. Around me 2nd and 3rd time mums had their babies removed to another room so they could get a good nights sleep - I wondered why. I was totally unprepared for the arduousness of early mumhood." Click here for the full story…

Laura's story -" Five months into the pregnancy with my first child I stopped sleeping. That is, It took me several hours after going to bed to fall asleep, only to wake up 3-4 hours later feeling exhausted. I was still working full-time as a PR executive in London and would have a long commute, followed by a busy day at work. But a typical night would be going to bed at about 10.30pm, maybe falling asleep by about 2am in the morning and getting up again at about 7am. I was exhausted." Click here for the full story…

Kates's story - "I always loved children and my dream was to get married and have children of my own so I was delighted when I fell pregnant after just six months of being married!

I loved being pregnant but started to get a bit fed up when the baby was 10 days late and tried all sorts of things to bring labour on! Frustratingly I had to be induced which made the labour quite long and when James was born he was grey and unresponsive - he had swallowed maconium and had to be rushed off to special care. It wasn't a great start and although we were reunited after a couple of hours I was exhausted and was struggling to breast-feed. This only got worse at home and when I gave up breast-feeding after 3 days I felt like a failure." Click here for the full story ...

Dads

Matthew's story - "From what I remember, seven years on, of the time when we went through the most awful year of our lives I now take comfort knowing that so much good has been achieved as a result of Charlotte's illness. I strongly feel that it was God's will for Charlotte to unfortunately suffer this dreadful malady so that she could help so many mums in what we all know is such a common occurrence." Click here to read more...

Stephen's story - "Having had the long experience of seeing my parents succumb to two of the major killers, cancer and heart disease I thought I could handle anything. How wrong could I have been!
When my wife started to exhibit strange and obsessive behavior patterns I put this down to hormones and that it would soon stabilise and everything would be normal." Click here to read more...

Raj's story - "I first noticed something was wrong with Jane soon after the birth. She became erratic and anxious - every little thing about the baby became a big deal. She became extremely aggressive and threatening to all of us including the baby." Click here to read more...

Steve's story - "My wife was postnatal from the outset, although it took a year before she was diagnosed. She hemorrhaged before she went into labour, required a blood transfusion due to severe anemia so it's no surprise looking back that she was postnatal after the birth of our son, Samuel." Click here to read more...

Helping dads

Living with someone who has postnatal illness can be very stressful and frightening. As a new dad you may feel ill equipped to deal with a crying baby as well as a tearful mum. It is a recognised fact that dads too can suffer from postnatal depression.

Our charity is committed to supporting both the ill mum and the dad at this difficult time.

We are fortunate to have some wonderful dads who can offer telephone support. To access this help simply email us at mail@postnatalillness.co.uk or telephone Charlotte on 01727 826627

Information for dads can also be found at: www.dadsdirect.com

If you have a story and are willing to share it with others then please contact charlotte.