This is Ruth Sell’s story…

Before having kids I really believed I could handle anything. I was a successful Advertising executive, I had travelled the world on my own and had come through many personal challenges, I had never suffered serious depression. Not much was said about PND prior to the birth, and what I did hear about I paid little attention to. If anyone had asked more about my history of anxiety or how well I deal with sleep deprivation it might have hit home a little more, but still I wouldn’t have expected it.

My pregnancy was wonderful and the birth was easy by my midwife’s standards (though it was hands down the most painful and gruelling experience of my life). My son fed well and was healthy. I had a supportive husband and no financial worries. Our only vulnerability was that we were on the other side of the world from all our family and being new to Auckland we had very few friends.

The PND started pretty much from the birth of my son but I didn’t really realise it was unusual until he was 3 months old. I developed terrible insomnia and anxiety, which led me to get depressed. I went to a useless GP who didn’t even look me in the eye as she prescribed me medication that didn’t work.

In desperation I flew back to the UK and stayed with my Mum for 6 weeks. When I got back to Auckland things were at breaking point, I never thought I would come so close to ending my life, it was a terrible terrible time. Thankfully I discovered an amazing GP who told me “you know it’s not normal to feel this way. You’re missing out on your son and you deserve to enjoy life and being a mum.’ She gave me the right medication and I started going to a support group and a therapist. I also found the most amazing acupuncturist.

I learnt that PND really is an illness. It’s not all in your head, much as it feels like it. Your body becomes so depleted from the physical trauma of birth, and the physical and mental challenge of being a mum that it can’t perform the functions that help you sleep and feel happy and have energy etc. Add to this the reality of all the challenges and emotions that come with being a Mum, plus the crazy hormonal changes and it is a ‘perfect storm’. The more it goes on the worse you feel and it becomes a vicious cycle. Medication lifted me out of the hole I was in so I could start living my life again.

After 6 months I came off the meds and was mostly fine until a few months after baby 2 was born and the insomnia and anxiety kicked back in. So I’ve been back on the meds for 10 months and am doing really well. Next hurdle – coming off the meds! I now live in Wellington.

The post PND Can Happen to Anyone first appeared on Mothers Helpers.

This is the time of year where it’s good to look back and see all that has been accomplished.  Mothers Helpers registered as a Charity in May of this year so that we were official!  We also established three Board members:  Kristina Paterson (Chair), Amanda Donald (Treasurer) and Asha Ines.  We hope to nominate also Onur Yilmaz  to our Board who has a GM position with a large corporation and has been volunteering his expertise and help with things like recruitment, marketing, contacts and funding applications.  Amanda has been busy assisting with funding applications, administration, keeping of accounts and budget projections.  And Asha has been lending her time to our Networking meeting.  Kristina has been busy in overseeing the whole of Mothers Helpers including receiving and responding to referrals, visiting mothers and providing an assessment, referrals and follow-up as well as co-ordinating and recruiting our volunteers.  Our thanks to each of our Board members for the work that they do voluntarily and our congratulations to Amanda who had baby girl Cassidy Elaine at 3.9kg on 10th December!

I’d also like to acknowledge the following people for their help that they have offered to us voluntarily:

Karen Rouse – administration help earlier in the year and assisting with Charity registration

Erin Taylor – help with administration and work on the website

Alex Carter (Spruce Ltd) – graphic design help and designing the website virtually from scratch including all the bells and whistles that go with that!

Gavin McQuoid & Panprint Labels – supplying printing of 1000 brochures, 1000 fliers and 500 business cards free of charge!

Altezano Cafe – all coffee supplies for our “Mumspace Cafe” earlier in the year

Digital Spot Printing – printing of “Mumspace Cafe” fliers

West Wave Aquatic Leisure Centre supporting our “Mumspace Cafe”

Shore City Elim for providing a faithful volunteer for one of our mums

Lucy Reade (Life Coach) – for providing her services free of charge to all our volunteers in support of what we do

and the many others who volunteered their time, money and skills for the benefit of  “Mumspace Cafe” and “Mothers Helpers”

Special thanks to for all those who participated in the Networking Meeting ‘Mothers Helpers’ hosted for all those involved in ante-natal/post-natal maternity services from community agencies through to hospital services.  It was a very successful event and we look forward to future meetings so that we can improve our referral processes and our services to women and their families.

Our most important accomplishment of course, is the work that we have been able to do with our mums in assisting them recover from postnatal depression or preventing them from experiencing it through our practical help and support.  This was made possible because of every one of the volunteers, helpers and donators above.

Where to From Here?

In 2012 ‘Mothers Helpers’ hopes to start cafes in various locations around Auckland one day per week for each location where mums with postnatal depression or at-risk of postnatal depression can drop in for coffee, support and a chat.  We would like to be able to provide a free creche so mums can have some time out, a foodbank and clothing swap service, divorce recovery and parenting workshops and one-on-one assessments for those wanting practical help from ‘Mothers Helpers.’

We would also like to continue the work that we are doing providing at-risk mothers with adequate support.  In order to do this, we need to be successful with our funding applications, donations from those that are able to give to this cause, partnering churches to supply the venue and take up the opportunity to help mothers, and we need volunteers.

If you would like to help in any one of these areas above, please contact us.

Merry Christmas, God bless you and keep you safe over this holiday period,

Kristina Paterson

The post Newsletter from Mothers Helpers first appeared on Mothers Helpers.