h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi

I'm a medical student yes ok but a nice one really. I've got to give a presenation on Post Natal Depression, and would really like to know if anyone's suffered from PND and if so did they get treatment and did they find it helpful?
If anyone wants to e mail me something in confidence or chat on msn.

My firstborn had to be induced 4 weeks early because of Rh Disease. I made an effort as nursing him, but he was weak and I not sure what I was doing. He was not thriving, and interestingly when he was a few weeks old, I quickly descended into the worst depression I had ever experienced. It was as though someone had put a brick on my head, and I had no motivation. I was so inable to care for myself and my baby that I had to be babysat by my parents. When I saw my doctor, he put me on Prozac and I quit nursing. Within a week I was better. I got pregnant with my second child a couple months later, and as a precaution, began taking prozac in the third trimester and did not nurse at all. Even though this was a very difficult pregnancy with lots of grisly procedures, and my daughter was born at 34 weeks and in the NICU for 2 weeks (on top of my having a 10 mo. old), I experienced no depression whatsover. I'm not sure if it was hormone upheaval (the progesterone/prolactin switch not working right the first time) or what, or what it was that actually fixed it, but that was my experience. The only time I have felt that terrible and inacapable of caring for myself since was after my husband committed suicide (that being a rather obvious one to figure out ).

Good luck on med school and your presentation. I admire anyone willing to make the academic and personal committments to go into medicine.

Thanks for you post! can I be really nosy and ask if you felt that the prozac helped? ok that's really personal I know so tell me to clear off if you want.

And I'm really pleased to here that everything's turned out well for you in the end.

I've been on The New Breakfast of Champions three times. With that first pregnancy, it could have been the prozac, or it could have been my hormones just readjusting on their own, a combination, or something else. With the second pregnancy it was preventative, and I didn't get a depression, so again, it's hard to say. (correlation vs. cause, and all that). The third time after my husband died it was easier to tell that it was helping me cope because it was a more protracted experience. An odd side effect occurred though - I smoked a *lot* of weed back then (well, still do, but anyway..), but had to stop because I would start tweaking! That was unnerving. Also, the reason I stopped was because I couldn't dream. For me, dreaming is like drinking water, and I need it to stay sane. So the conclusion is I'm not sure about Prozac. Since there was no sort of chemical and psychological monitoring performed, it's hard to say that I improved because of Prozac, something else, or my own resiliance.