Postpartum psychosis affects roughly one in 500 new moms. It is a serious pschiatric illness yet recovery rate is excellent. You can read my blog on this disurbing condition here
Best wishes
Beth

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A friend had two babies and severe psychosis with both.

Her doc recommended getting her tubes tied after DD#2 was born and she did.

She had a good support system within her family and that helped a lot.
I believe she was on medication for a period of time also.

She is a normal, healthy, educated, and fun person, but did not tolerate postpartum well.

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Hello from Central Illinois, USA!
We are Peanut Butter & Jelly =
Sandwich Generation.
28th Wedding Anniv in 2009.
Blessed w/ 2 sons: age 23 & 20 in college
& my elderly parents 85 & 87, our 'older kids.'

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What an awful situation for your friend. Not only did she experience bouts of psychosis with both babies, but she has had to make the difficult decision to stop having more children based on her medical history.
I hope things have improved for her now.

Originally Posted by QueenAngie

A friend had two babies and severe psychosis with both.

Her doc recommended getting her tubes tied after DD#2 was born and she did.

She had a good support system within her family and that helped a lot.
I believe she was on medication for a period of time also.

She is a normal, healthy, educated, and fun person, but did not tolerate postpartum well.

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I had never heard of this condition until an ex.work colleague suffered with it. It was terrible. She hallucinated that her baby had fangs and devil horns and because neither she nor anybody she knew had ever heard of this condition, it made her suffering far worse.

Before this she had NO history of mental illness whatsoever. She was one of the most 'normal' and well-adjusted, ordinary people I ever knew.

I'm grateful that people are talking about this condition. Raising awareness can only be a good thing.

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Originally Posted by Brigitta

I had never heard of this condition until an ex.work colleague suffered with it. It was terrible. She hallucinated that her baby had fangs and devil horns and because neither she nor anybody she knew had ever heard of this condition, it made her suffering far worse.

Before this she had NO history of mental illness whatsoever. She was one of the most 'normal' and well-adjusted, ordinary people I ever knew.

I'm grateful that people are talking about this condition. Raising awareness can only be a good thing.

Thank you for your feedback on this article, Brigitta. It's quite common for postpartum psychosis to "come out of nowhere" as you say, although pre-existing stresses can also precipitate the condition. It's an awful condition, as the new mother is denied all the excitement and fun that accompanies having a new baby. And you're right, lack of information is a problem and the condition should really be taught in antenatal classes so that the family is aware of the symptoms as the mother is too ill to be monitoring herself.

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I think that people to need to talk about it, and that families should be made aware of it. I had never heard of it until after I had had my last baby and I was reading a book on mental illness and one of the personal stories was from a woman who suffered from it. Then on the news a few months ago, they were talking about a mother who had drowned all of her children and how her sentance would be served in a mental hospital because she had had postpartum psychosis. How scary it must be to suffer in that manner and what a tragedy that the condition wasn't diagnosed until after the damage had already been done. I will definately talk to my daughters and sons about it when it is time for them to become parents.

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I never heard of the condition either, and nothing of that nature was ever discussed in prenatal classes either. It's a shame because it's obviously a frightening conditioning, but made even more scary by the fact that few people would recognize it for what it was. I didn't learn about it till I was a uni studying psychology, so there's a big hole missing in the general public's medical knowledge.
In Australia they have recently introduced mental health as part of the personal development curriculum. Although it's mainly targeted at conditions like depression, anxiety, bipolar and drug use and psychosis, it would be good if they could just mention things like postpartum psychosis in passing, so that at least the seed is sown that these things exist. I'll step down off my soapbox now!!

Originally Posted by babydawn

I think that people to need to talk about it, and that families should be made aware of it. I had never heard of it until after I had had my last baby and I was reading a book on mental illness and one of the personal stories was from a woman who suffered from it. Then on the news a few months ago, they were talking about a mother who had drowned all of her children and how her sentance would be served in a mental hospital because she had had postpartum psychosis. How scary it must be to suffer in that manner and what a tragedy that the condition wasn't diagnosed until after the damage had already been done. I will definately talk to my daughters and sons about it when it is time for them to become parents.

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Stay on your soapbox Beth! People need to hear it!

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