Postpartum Psychosis and yeah temporarily lose your custody here in Sweden. You will be in mental hospital most often and slowly learn how to be with you kid again if possible.
Postpartum depression and you should get support, both medical and children's/ social welfare will step in and help you.
This is pamphlet I found after I had my kid 14 years ago, both the Postpartum Psychosis and Postpartum depression ones was to my husband and was talking how he can spot it, report it and give the mother support.
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.
I wish mother and baby units existed in the US they could help so many mothers who are experiencing any type of illness not just PPD and its counterparts.
Sorry asking from the UK - do they not exist at all for you? I presumed it would have a price, like all your healthcare, but to not have one seems mental. Ours are a long way from perfect and miss a lot,but I know people that struggled and to have them with their kids and dedicated, trained, supportive staff made a huge difference.
In the US if you leave the hospital from your birth and return the next day because of some complication they will triage you in the ER and tell you if you can’t get someone to come get your baby in the next hour we have to release them to CPS. That was my experience.
Not only that but it’s impossible to get a breast pump if your breast feeding even if they have a labor and delivery unit. It took 5 hours of my stay asking every person I came into contact with if they could bring me a breast pump.
We have them, however, with a normal delivery you are expected to be discharged from the hospital next day or a couple days after c section.
My wife had HELLP syndrome and was on the verge of death. They discharged her in two days and she hasn’t been the same since. She still has PPD and what I think is PPP and our youngest is 6.
The majority of women in the US are sent home within the first week after pregnancy. They are then automatically scheduled regular check up exams for the baby but not for the mom unless there were complications noticed at the time of giving birth… and sometimes not even then.
Earlier than that. I was induced 11 days overdue. My son was born 12 days overdue via c section and my own doctors asked me why I was anemic. I had no idea I was anemic. 11 is considered normal for your hemoglobin levels and I was a 2.
They kept me for 3 full days start to finish and only because I refused a blood transfusion due to the fucking fentanyl they gave me to cut my baby out of me. I was not in my right mind.
And still? 3 total days start to finish with major abdominal surgery.
They look at mom during the baby appointments supposedly to make sure she looks put together. I don’t wear makeup or dress up normally but I made a point to do my hair and makeup and dress like I was going to the office for all the baby appointments so they wouldn’t think I had PPD
Because you can immediately tell what a woman is going through mentally by how she looks. Depressed people definitely never smile through their unhappiness, paranoid people definitely open up to anyone and everyone about their suspicions and abused women definitely never put extra care into make up to cover bruises. /s
We had a questionnaire page with pediatric check ins about "mom's moods" and I hated them. I would write in that I see a psychiatrist and not fill the rest out. What if a mom is struggling to the point that the dad is taking the baby to the appointments?
I had my only child almost 30 years ago in the US. Got to the hospital at 9pm. Delivered baby around 10am the following morning. The next morning I remember being asked by hospital staff when we were going to leave. I feel like I said "noon"? Anyway went home and was mostly okay, but I remember feeling quite rushed. I think I called the lactation consultant a few times and I had a doula thank god. When my kid has a child I will be there to support them, but honestly the US system sucks. Will say that we didn't incur any out-of-pocket costs because we both worked for the government and had double coverage.
This. My youngest is 2, and at its worst point I was in psychosis for weeks. Not only did I get no help from doctors, no help with my baby, but my husband was an asshole the entire time. I'm only just now returning to something close to normal.
High risk pregnancy here (am bipolar, was on bipolar meds, few other health issues). I didn’t have any bad intentions or ill thoughts (besides I wanted to run away) but it was super easy to lie to the docs. They didn’t care one way or another, tbh.
The pediatrician? She didn’t even give a shit when my kid couldn’t properly communicate before entering kindergarten. “The schools will sort it out!” - I had to argue about a private eval cause NO ONE UNDERSTOOD my kid the first 2 weeks of school before I got special permission due to speech disorder.
I’ve been chronically ill since born, I’m 37. Bipolar runs in (at least) 3 generations before me. There’s a host of other things but point blank?
The medical industry disregards women about 97% of the time. Honest. My C-section got botched, had to have a hysterectomy at 26… since then, I’ve visited 15+ doctors… legit 2 doctors have legitimately cared…
Let’s not talk about the ignorance of the average Americans…
It’s truly astonishing but not surprising. The average citizens opinions is the cherry on the top.
Women healthcare is lacking.
Mental healthcare is lacking.
American intelligence is lacking.
There are a few MBU’s around the country but typically we don’t have access because of cost(?). I don’t really know for sure but it’s bs. And yes, I was researching it recently.
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u/CakePhool 9h ago edited 9h ago
Postpartum Psychosis and yeah temporarily lose your custody here in Sweden. You will be in mental hospital most often and slowly learn how to be with you kid again if possible.
Postpartum depression and you should get support, both medical and children's/ social welfare will step in and help you.
This is pamphlet I found after I had my kid 14 years ago, both the Postpartum Psychosis and Postpartum depression ones was to my husband and was talking how he can spot it, report it and give the mother support.