Was anyone depressed during pregnancy?

[cheshire]

HI

There is some research (must admit 2001/2) which interested me here:
www.irishhealth.com/?level=4&id=2694

It basically implies that women are actually more likely to be depressed during pregnancy:

Women are more likely to become depressed while they are pregnant, rather than after their babies are born, new research indicates.

Over 9,000 women were assessed at weeks 18 and 32 of their pregnancy and then again eight weeks and eight months after their children were born.

The results found that almost 12% of women had probable depression at week 18, rising to 13.5% at week 32.

However this figure dropped to 9% eight weeks after the birth. Eight months later, it was found to be just over 8%.

I don't see how this can be the same as post natal depression - do you? Maybe this is not the implication.

I just thought it would be interesting to know how many of us PNI sufferers actually felt depressed during pregnancy.

I know I did and had to have the usual range of ECGs and scans around 30 weeks.

I had some depressive behaviour between 40-42 weeks - although this could just be the build up...

I wasn't like that with my first though - I was the picture of health right up to the end of my pregnancy.

[francoise]

i was totally down in pregnancy , i was known as the miserable cow with the bump by everyone , i was so sick and tied all the time and in and out of hospital fearing the worst all the way through it after losing the one twin and yeah my nickname suited me , it was alot different to what happened after the birth though , that was mad , it kind of happened dead quick and very physical and everything changed


francoisexx

[bam02]

I was appointed a cpn during my pregancy so yes - I was depression then and probably before as i was struggling at work with other illness and the work itself and a bullying management team! But it got worse when pregnanat and after it was kind of a catalist (sp) for my depression being recognised probably because they were worried for the baby not me!!

I got pre-eclampsia after 35 weeks and was induced at 28 weeks - should have been ealier but they were busy!! and it was August so no staff!! I had high blood pressure during and after birth. Which could have all been avoided if induced earlier so i was angery that they put me and my baby at risk.

But its not an unusal story. Pregnant women seem to treated as vessels and not people!!

Sorry for the sad answer. I am sure some women have wonderful birth experiences - not my two.

Bye for now

Anne-Marie

[bam02]

Should say 38 weeks - not 28... Sarah was not premature - obviously my spelling mistakes due the negative feelings this brought up. But its over now that bit three years almost.

[cheshire]

Dear Fran

I agree, I think I was a bit depressed with baby during 2nd pregnancy and had been losing sleep for quite some time due to hubby being ill. But you're right, what happened after the birth was not just about mood swings or feeling very down - it was physical, fast developing and felt out of my control..it felt like an overwhelming illness which it was..

[francoise]

i called you vee in my last post on here , sorry but it sounded like vees sort of stuff there , anyway ive edited now , but got to say its very interesting isnt it all of this , in remember my first two pregnancies very differently , used to go out and play pool with the first one and the second one was as active in other ways and felt absolutely fine , this last time i did notice i was having morning sickness through the whole term and my skin went totally dry and funny looking , , yeah it was all so different , pregnancy was an ordeal to say the least and since well i think i have described it in graphic form so many times


francoise xx

[cheshire]

Hey

My second was different too. I was ILL all the way (as in morning sickness and what I believe was depression at the end..)

Today I was told that hormones start to drop after 30 and that this can contribute to anxiety....? Not heard that one before. Must admit before 30 with 1st and now 35 years 'young' with 2nd..

[francoise]

hi hopeful

yeah i was 22 when i had amy and then 25 when i actually had sam and 38 with leon so yeah massive difference in age there , its my fourtieth in march and im really gonna be so chuffed if i reach forty , it will be the party that rocks the midlands heheheheehe

[gail]

hi hopeful

the more i think about it the more i realise that i probably needed help during pregnancy aswell! i too suffered from severe morining sickness and then anxiety at about week 30 til
the end. then after the baby things went from bad to worse. there was a note made that i had been depressed before on my medical notes, and i was put in the care of a specialist who was supposed to see me to see how i was coping. for some reason i never saw him and the doctor said for me to treat this as a normal pregnancy. i think this was unproductive as i didnt know what a normal pregnancy was, so every feeling i had i put down to being prgnant - hormones etc. i expected it all to go away after my baby was born so i was just sitting tight,

looking back i think i needed some support during pregnancy - i definately had antenatal depression. i dont think this is a subject that is widely recognised or discussed- and most suffer in silence because there is not enough awareness.

i often think if i was taken seriously in pregnancy (i went to see 3 different doctors )
i think the degree or acuteness of my illness could have been avoided.

the more i think about this the more angry i get!

sorry for the rant but you most certainly were not the only one!
hope this helps
love gail
xx

[susanneb1984]

OMG yes!
It was strange, Thea was 6 weeks early, she had a lot of medical problems from me been about 20 weeks pregnant, and I coped fine. So when I got preg with GJ I expected the same, and nothing, she was healthy, I was fine, and I got pre natal depression. Not nice, had to have my hair cut so short now because I didn't brush my hair for 4 months and it got all matted at the back!

[monica]

Hi

I got PNI after my second child. I wasn't depressed at all during my pregnancy; in fact felt really well and it was trouble free. I was very anxious, though, particularly for the first half as having had 2 previous miscarriages, I was paranoid it would happen again.

Monica