PND Survivors - How do you feel now?

Question

I am suffering from post natal depression, since the bubs is 4 weeks old. She's now 6-months old and I am feeling slightly better since being put on medication and starting therapy.

Would love to know if there are PND survivors out there and how you feel now looking back at your experience. Any of you have had a second child after PND? Were you afraid to go through it again? What are your feelings towards having another one and perhaps what your thoughts on looking back on your experience with a newborn?

I'm still struggling to get out of the black hole, but hope it goes away soon.

Answer 1

It is a tough thing to go through I had problems with my first and actually said i would NEVER have another baby but 2 years later i was ready to have another and so i did and of course my ob put me back on med because they say if you have it one time you will most likely have it again and could be worse but i don't i am more relaxed with my second then the first i think learning from the first baby helps with the second every mom has up and down days you just can't let it bring you that down enjoy your baby the don't stay little long.

Answer 2

Post-natal depression isn't a life-threatening disease. You're talking about it like it's cancer or something ..

IF you're still experiencing this after 6 months you should get some medication; PND is 'temporary' .. and 6 months is far from temporary. You might need an anti-depressant for a chemical unbalance.

Secondly, all pregnancies are different; just because you have experienced PND with your first pregnancy it does NOT mean you will experience it with your second.

Good luck, I hope you feel better soon ..

Answer 3

I experienced PND severly with my now 5 year old daughter. My PND symptoms didn't affect my bonding or relationship with my daughter but it did end in the break up of my relationship with her father. Anyway fast forward to now and life is fabulous and yes i am expecting bubba #2. and really looking forward to it.  

Answer 4

Hi,

I had bad depression after my first child.  There were times that I would envision just driving off the road and ending it all ... it was that bad!  When I got on medication it just numbed it a bit, but it didn't really help.  What helped was time . . .and the realization that my life wasn't about me anymore . . . I know that sounds harsh.  

Looking back on it, I wish people had been more supportive of me BONDING with my baby.  At every turn people were interfering with me bonding with my newborn.  I'm sure they had the best of intentions because I was a struggling new mother, but no one seemed concerned with helping me bond, they just assumed I had.  I know now that close contact w/ the baby/no prolonged seperation/wearing the baby/being allowed to care for her as I deemed fit would have helped drastically.

I DID not have the same problem with my second child, as I learned what sent me there in the first place.  My best advice to you would be to HOLD your baby and try to enjoy the feeling of mothering a little helpless baby . . . that first year is gone in the blink of an eye (kind of like pregnancy!)

Take the baby to get pictures taken . . . show the baby off at a park . . . take things day by day . . . it WILL get better!

(My first daughter is now 7 and I love her to pieces!)

Answer 5

PND was the worst and hardest thing Ive ever had to go threw.  I was diagnosd at 4 weeks and my baby is now 11 weeks old.  Ive been on medication for 7 weeks now and am feeling a million times better.  The only problem is my meds are making it difficult to sleep properly.  I tried going off them because I was so exahusted and I thought I was ontop of things but the PND returned so I have recently started taking them again.  Im going to go back to the doc and try and change my meds but that is not very easy to do because one of my worst side effects of PND is lack of motivation and wanting to just hide at home all day. I will force myself to do it though. I still have my moments when I just want to crawl up in a ball and cry my eyes out but lukily I am now able to have hope that one day all the symptoms will be gone and I will be able to be my old self again- without medication!

I am scared at the thought of having another baby because PND was so horrible. But I do want another one day  and if I can go threw this once and survive I know I can do it again. Its worth it for our beutiful children.

Answer 6

Hi!  

I had pretty bad PND after my first.  It was really, really awful.  I felt like I was all alone and was so overwhelmed.  transitioning from independent strong 30 year old woman to mother of very dependent infant was really hard for me.  

Symptoms eased up for me after about 3 months, but it took a long time (more than 3 years) for me to recover from being that scared.

With #2, the transition (really the worst part for me when I remember it) was already made by #1.  Also I started taking lexapro (antidepressant) during the last month of pregnancy as rec'd by OB and was able to stop it shortly after giving birth.  

the second child for me was WAY easier, no PND symptoms, life was easier for me too, better job and lots more money in the household, was able to work part time and people were way more supportive.