Pregnancy and birth - trigger for mood problems, any experiences?

[retrogothic]

Hi,
Have any of you ladies found giving birth to be a trigger for depression, hypomania or mania? I am concerned and due to give birth in a couple of months. I am usually very dedicatied to managing and monitoring my moods daily but the termoil of labour and birth will be a huge change, emotional and tiring so I am worried I could miss signs. What have you experienced?

 

[jax]

I've never been pregnant - but have been in hospital with a number of women who were hospitalized due to going manic when pregnant. If you are concerned - do talk to your GP or Pdoc. Hopefullhy they will keep a good eye on you before the birth and after. Good luck. Hope the birth goes well and that you will avoid any mental health problems.
Jacqui

 

[retrogothic]

Hi Jax,
Thank you for your post, I think I should go through specific signs with my husband too so that if I do weird things he will notice and contact my CPN. My mental health team are aware but I think I need to be more pushy about making a plan with them so I know exactly what to do, or my husband does. I will speak to my midwife and ask about adding these specifics to my birth plan and then following the birth, the weeks that follow because that will be the danger time because life will completely change.
Thank you

 

[unlucky]

Congratulatons on your pregnancy!! I don't think you should worry too much because everyone is different. I think if you've got pnd you'll know about it pretty fast!! I can hardly remember the first year after my dughter was born but thats not to say I regret anything, although in hindsight maybe it would have been better if I'd been more prepared. I think some people are just more predisposed to pnd and I've always had deeper issues. The main thing is to look forward to the birth of your beautiful baby - no-one ever said it was going to be easy but my pnd hasn't put me off and I would love to have more kids. May your contractions be painless, your labour be short and your stitches minimal!!!

 

[KP1]

I don't know if there is much you can do to avoid a relapse in your mental health. The best thing you can do and it sounds as if you are already doing it is to get a good support team around you to help you through the late stages of pregnancy,birth and early days.
Take care.
KP

 

[retrogothic]

Thank you for your nice messages, I am looking forward to having the baby and am very excited!

 

[candylamb]

Hey hun i actually got ill during pregnancy and started prozac which sent me on a high and i was hospitilized straight after my son was born, my situation was alot different and if you have the support around you and are quite stable etc you should come through it all ok babies are stressful and the sleep deprivation is never a good thing but if you have someone to help you along and gd docs am sure you will enjoy motherhood <3 good luck hun! X

 

[suzy]

Has anyone heard of: Postpartum psychosis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

That is what some with bipolar are at risk with, maybe like what candylamb said. I don't think there is too much to worry about as if they know you are bipolar they will be keeping an eye on you, not trying to scare you or anything! Congratulations, and if you are stable and good at monitoring your moods you should be alright

However Im asking as my Mum had that, and has never been diagnosed bipolar, and I am type One but stable (no relapse for 5 years) but I would be in the high risk thing for that I think. We would like kids in maybe three or four years but yes it is a worry that it could mess me up somehow. Now I don't know if my question is stupid or not, but does a cesarean decrease the risk? I guess I don't need to worry about these things for a while but it does interest me

 

[calypso]

Hiya

I have been pregnant twice, and I am diagnosed bipolar, but wasn't diagnosed at the time. Obviously, you have come off your meds and that can be tricky in itself. If you were on sodium valproate, and still taking it, you need to urgently see a doc.

In pregnancy, the body tends to protect you and the baby, and I can only talk from my experience, it was a serene time emotionally. After the birth, I went hypomanic but that wasn't too much of a problem, so it didn't affect me too badly.

I did have some feelings of depression, but luckily had an aunt who said, try not to talk your self into it. I know that sounds wrong, we don't talk ourselves into our moods, but I was aware that I was watching for depression, so when the low hit, I was getting all wound up. So there is depression and there is fear of depression. PND is totally physical and must be treated, I know, and I am not saying that is not real, please don't misunderstand me.

One other problem is that we cannot take meds if we are breast feeding, as the baby gets a dollop of the meds too. I only breast fed for a month with each one, and whilst not diagnosed bipolar then, I did have recurrent severe depressions. When it started to hit, I stopped the breast feeding and took the AntiDs. That might be why I went a little high.

As someone else said, we are all different and there is no answer that fits all. Ask your closest friends or family to help you have insight, and trust them - even if you have no insight.

All the very best, and come back and tell us all about the baby because I know that to a mother, their baby is the greatest baby in the world. I LOVE hearing about new babies, so you won't bore me! xx

 

[anonymous1]

I hope that everything works out for you with the arrival of your new baby - it is right that everyone is so different and babies are different too - so one baby may settle easily while another may be colicky or not sleep well.

My own experience, was that I developed psychosis and depression some weeks after the birth and I felt physically like I was really heavy all the time so that it was hard to walk very far. Looking back I think it would have helped enormously if I had been able to have a good break a couple of times a week from my mum or someone I was able to trust so that I could just sleep because sleep deprivation played a big part I think in triggering the illness on top of a whole lot of stress that was going on at the time. I didn't know anything much about psychosis when it happened, but the illness started with me having growing anxiety so that I had a lot of trouble sleeping, thoughts about my own upbringing and then went to onto paranoid delusions (which did have some truth in them, because I'd had some difficulties in my past). It took quite a long time before people and myself realised I was ill.

Another thing which would have helped too was having more supportive friends around who were able to drop in for coffee (I had just moved and was new in an area where I didn't know anyone).

Finally, looking back I wish I had got one of those baby books where you record things about the first months or year because it would have been good to do and would have helped me bond with my baby.

There seems to be a lot more things geared for mums with babies now - massage, baby signing, coffee mornings, music classes - so having things like that to go to could help a lot by providing social contact and some structure to your week. But I think that having enough sleep can be one of the biggest issues (they didn't have the Baby Whisperer book out when I was a mum, but maybe that would be helpful?).

Take care & good luck,

Anonx

 

[Sugarplum]

Congrats on the pregnancy.

However everyone knows that birth affects moods.

Sleep deprivation doesn't help in my mood management but your moods are obviously much better than mine.

 

[ReddishOfRed]

Has nobody noticed that retrogothic was pregnant in May 2009 ? ? ? ? ?

? ? ? ?

 

[angiebib1976]

I don't think they have!! To be honest, I nearly replied to this thread, then I noticed the date. Sometimes people just don't notice these things!

 

[ReddishOfRed]

Phew ! (~8

 

[Sugarplum]

Maybe I should have been more sensible.