Few items in the news last week affected me as much as the story of new mum Charlotte Bevan, found dead hours after walking out of a Bristol maternity ward with her four-day-old daughter, whose tiny body was discovered not far away.

It’s a story so sad it almost doesn’t seem real, and now Charlotte’s family are left to face Christmas with unanswered questions and utter despair. But it has prompted postnatal depression (PND) support groups to speak out about how mums like Charlotte, who was believed to have battled mental illness, should be given more support and closer monitoring in hospital.

They have highlighted the ‘lack of support’ available to mums after they give birth and say it’s vital all new mothers are given information about where to go to and who to talk to if they need to before even leaving hospital.

“The level of service is ‘too varied’ and local commissioners need to ensure that the support they provide for women meets the highest standards,” says Dr Catherine Calderwood, NHS England’s national clinical director for maternity and women’s health.

As many as 10-15% of new mothers develop PND, yet it’s still not that commonly talked about.

But considering the general lack of awareness of what the symptoms of postnatal depression actually are, it’s less surprising that more than 30,000 women suffer in silence from the condition each year, sometimes having heartbreaking effects on their families.

PND is an illness that usually develops within six weeks of giving birth (but it’s often not apparent until around six months) and can develop gradually or all of a sudden, ranging from relatively mild to very severe. Even men can be affected by it, although it’s not as common.

Because having a baby is thought of as a happy time, many women are unaware they even have PND, even though they may not be able to shake off the feeling of something not being quite right. It may start with a period of feeling emotional and tearful – known as the ‘baby blues’, which many new mums face after the hormonal changes their body has been through. Having a baby can be an unsettling, challenging and overwhelming experience, but while for many new mums, the baby blues can be very distressing, it often doesn’t last long and is generally quite manageable.

But PND is different. Its symptoms, although varied in each woman, are severe and longer lasting. They can happen gradually or all of a sudden, affecting one in 10 of women within a couple of months of giving birth, although it can take much longer after having a baby before symptoms start to appear.

These include daily fatigue, irritability, apathy and difficulty in functioning. When a person feels like this, it’s difficult to properly look after a newborn baby’s needs.

However, it’s important for mothers with PND to understand that having this illness doesn’t mean they are a bad mother, but it’s this fear that makes many new mums reluctant to seek help from others.

Charlotte Bevan, who was sadly found dead in Bristol last week, days after giving birth

Rachael Dobson, from Pre & Postnatal Depression Advice and Support Foundation charity (PANDAS), says PND sufferers need to be aware of potential mental health issues that can begin during pregnancy.

She said: “All new mothers feel some degree of pressure with the expectations of motherhood.

“After giving birth there is a shift in hormones which increases mothers’ vulnerability. There is support available and everyone should be aware that ‘It’s OK not to be OK’. As a society we should feel able to talk about our struggles.”

What causes PND isn’t clear, nor why it affects some but not all. But a combination of lack of sleep, the physical and emotional stress of looking after a newborn baby, social circumstances and hormonal changes can be just some of the contributing factors.

One mum I spoke to said PND isn’t easy to describe. “It’s the strangest feeling, a new life being solely dependent on you,” she explained.

“No matter how prepared you think you are, it’s completely overwhelming. PND is hard to put into words but if I had to, it was like a constant knot inside that tightened when my baby cried. I felt like I was drowning in the guilt of not being able to cope with her.

“From being able to do what I wanted, when I wanted, I struggled with the constant need this little girl had on me. What marked the turning point was me walking out. Her dad came home from work, and I left. I didn’t leave him, I left her. I felt claustrophobic, suffocated.”

The following day she sought help from her health visitor. “I can’t describe the relief when I was told it was likely I had PND,” she said. “I cried when I phoned my husband. I was broken but I could be fixed – it wasn’t my fault.

“Once I was prescribed medication and support was put in place, my world changed completely. Just having a diagnosis lifted a weight off me and I stopped feeling guilty and started trying to enjoy being a new mum.”

Often it takes just one occurrence as a catalyst, which is what happened to Naomi Moghaddam.

She said: “Everything was great at first but after the first months of broken sleep, a constantly crying baby and hours of breastfeeding, something snapped. I was constantly tearful and kept doubting I was a fit mother. Those doubts started to mount up to the point I felt as if my son would be better off without me.

“Then after three months of living with my parents I went back to my apartment, up two flights of stairs with no lift and had an accident with the pram and Ashton fell out. I was traumatised.

“That night at the hospital, with my husband furious, the depression escalated and I started having nightmares and anxiety attacks.”

Naomi added: “I started to stop enjoying my son, sometimes becoming angry. I never once felt like hurting him but I started to resent being a mum and at that moment I knew this was not right. I loved my son. People commented on how well I was doing but inside I was a mess.”

The experience compelled Naomi to visit her GP and although he reassured her she was a good mum, he suggested antidepressants and therapy.

As she was breastfeeding, she sought the latter. “I could talk to someone anonymous who wouldn’t judge and it really helped,” she added. “As my boy grew he was easier to manage and I started to enjoy motherhood and now we have a really close relationship.

“I suggest to any new mum if at any point you feel what I did, see a GP. It’s a common occurrence and can be extreme especially with those that suffer from depression before, like me.”

If you think you might be suffering from PND, visit www.nhs.uk and search for ‘PND’ to find a list of some of the symptoms and details of how to get help.

 

Although there is help available out there, many believe there is a stigma attached to PND, preventing women from seeking help, and that generally, there’s not enough information available on the subject.

It was this reasoning that inspired a group of local mums with experience of the illness, to found the Journeys of Hope charity, with the aim of becoming a nationwide information hub for women to go to whenever they feel they need help.

Ann Girling, one of the founders, told me: “PND is more common than people realise. We want women to know having this is not their fault, that they’re not alone and that they will get better.

“The fear and misconception surrounding the area of PND and mental health issues in motherhood is leaving thousands of mums under prepared but thanks to a lack of knowledge we’re also left feeling alone and isolated.

“We are terrified about what’s happening to us, we don’t understand why we are feeling the way we are and we are unaware of where to go for the right help and support.

“Unless this changes how can we as women be fully prepared for motherhood? How can we as mums help ourselves and each other if we happen to be the one woman in ten diagnosed with a mental health issue following the birth of our babies if we have no knowledge of these issues in the first place?

“How can we recognise these issues in ourselves and others if we don’t know how they manifest and most importantly how can we arm ourselves against maternal mental health issues and empower ourselves to ask for help if we can’t talk about them with our family, friends and health professionals due to the stigma associated with them?”

The group’s website offers lots of information about PND and how to get help. The group is also planning a Journeys of Hope Week to be held next May. Visit www.journeysofhope.co.uk.