Mum who felt resentment towards her newborn baby after being left with PTSD speaks out
Francesca Austen is reassuring other mums-to-be that not everyone shares the same magical journey of motherhood
Francesca Austen with her daughter, Aderyn
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WE are all products of our experiences, some good and some not so positive but I believe that everything we go through teaches us something if we pay attention. As a medical student, I learned the science of disease as well as how to treat and take care of people with medical problems and for some reason, training as a doctor, I thought I was immune to ill health, especially to mental health. So, when I first encountered being on the other side of the consultation table – as a patient – I learned first-hand that all of us have the ability to experience vulnerability and it often happens when you least expect it and, in my case, it was when I first became a mother; what was meant to be the best time ever instead took me into a dark space.
Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week
By
Photograph courtesy of Marley Hall.
Untreated perinatal mental health issues are the leading cause of death to women in pregnancy and within the first year after birth.
Antenatal depression is a change in mood that is persistent and more severe than the average tearfulness that a woman may experience a few times throughout pregnancy. Signs include:
Unusual amount of worry about giving birth and parenthood.
Lack of energy and disturbed sleep.
Losing interest in yourself or your pregnancy.
Feeling emotionally detached, teary, angry or irritable.
Chronic anxiety.
Sense of hopelessness
You may not have all of these symptoms. But if any of these become concerning, speak with your doctor or midwife.
Published:
6:53 PM May 7, 2021
A website dedicated to perinatal mental illness support, created by new and expectant mums who have experienced symptoms, has been launched.
- Credit: ELFT
Mums in Newham and Tower Hamlets experiencing perinatal mental illness have access to a new resource created by women who have been through it themselves.
A dedicated website is being launched by the East London NHS Foundation Trust (ELFT) today (Friday, May 7), coinciding with Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week, with the key message that anyone experiencing symptoms is not alone.
The website will act as a first point of contact for families who are expecting a baby and may not know there is a specialist mental health service for mums.
Emma Jane Unsworth by Alex Lake
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To mark Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week we talk to the novelist and screenwriter about her new memoir, After the Storm. With searingly brutal honesty, Emma unpacks her son s traumatic birth, the PND that almost destroyed everything, and why the myth of women having it all is making us sick
Postnatal depression is not supposed to make you laugh but brutal honesty and dazzling humour are part of Emma Jane Unsworth’s award-winning literary arsenal. Weapons she deploys so brilliantly and to devastating effect in