In the UK we have some mother and baby units for women with post partum psychosis. They're much better for the women, most people spend around 7-8 weeks in them I was borderline ending up in one.
Post partum psychosis is really misunderstood - a lot of the psychosis comes from actually wanting to protect your child to the point that you become a danger to them. I flipped between delusions that started with the thought that social services coming to take them so I packed bags for them so they wouldn't be without their things, but that eventually lead to "knowing" the government were trying to steal my youngest child so I planned to kill both of us.
I also had delusions where he wasn't a real baby but a being that wanted to harm my eldest daughter. That was a really dangerous time for my baby.
I kept both of my kids the whole time, and with a lot of support and therapy, and with a multidisciplinary team around me I'm ok again. 7 years later I've qualified as a therapist myself, and hope to start working in the postpartum field soon.
ETA: the good faith comments have ended and I'm getting nowt but pithy one liners from trolls saying ridiculous things. Going to turn off comments and stop responding now.
I had similar issues as to the person that you are responding to this so this case hits close to home. after giving birth to my second child. I had a really bad postpartum depression, and there was one night I considered ending my life and that my children. My baby was only two months old and my oldest two years old. We were driving home from the park and I cannot stop sobbing, and I thought if I just turned my wheel onto oncoming traffic, this misery will end for me and my children I pulled over and I so uncontrollably or what seemed hours. Things got worse from there. My doctor said it was normal to have the baby blues. It took an intervention from my family out of state. I was with family 24 seven for six months and on medication to finally start feeling better ironically, I ended up getting really sick and almost died from pancreatitis, gallbladder issues, and liver failure due to the hormones.
About a year later, I got pregnant again and I lost the pregnancy at 16 weeks, faced postpartum depression and it made me absolutely hate my oldest child. I was not allowed to be near him because of how much anger I had towards him. It was not an easy road, and it felt very lonely. It was very lonely.
Before children, I only suffered from anxiety have never been anti, high depression, medications, or have any mental health issues. I can tell you one thing, though the person that I was doing my pregnancy is not someone I recognize.
Obviously, this is not an easy subject to discuss, and it needs to be very vulnerable but I think part of the issue is that it’s such a taboo, subject and mother suffering our chastised further
Edit. Sorry for the poor grammar speech to text as I was walking and very emotional.
Thank you so much for sharing this. One good thing to come out of this whole trial is that so many people are openly speaking about their struggles instead of hiding it and pretending that having a baby is all sunshine and rainbows
3.6k
u/Playful_Flower5063 Sep 04 '26 edited Sep 06 '26
In the UK we have some mother and baby units for women with post partum psychosis. They're much better for the women, most people spend around 7-8 weeks in them I was borderline ending up in one.
Post partum psychosis is really misunderstood - a lot of the psychosis comes from actually wanting to protect your child to the point that you become a danger to them. I flipped between delusions that started with the thought that social services coming to take them so I packed bags for them so they wouldn't be without their things, but that eventually lead to "knowing" the government were trying to steal my youngest child so I planned to kill both of us.
I also had delusions where he wasn't a real baby but a being that wanted to harm my eldest daughter. That was a really dangerous time for my baby.
I kept both of my kids the whole time, and with a lot of support and therapy, and with a multidisciplinary team around me I'm ok again. 7 years later I've qualified as a therapist myself, and hope to start working in the postpartum field soon.
ETA: the good faith comments have ended and I'm getting nowt but pithy one liners from trolls saying ridiculous things. Going to turn off comments and stop responding now.