Did your mum or close relative have PNI?

[Veritee]

Some of us have been wondering if in any way PNI could 'run in families' or if there is any link between having PNI and your own mother or a close relative getting PNI?

And wanted to ask this question?

In fact I have just started a Research Degree where I hope to at least start to look for answers to this and some of these other questions :

i.e - does having PNI once mean you will get it again?
- does having a close relative have PNI mean you be more likely will get it yourself?
-Are there any common dominator's between women or between pregnancies that contribute women getting PNI or not?

my research topic is PNI and these questions will defiantly be part of it??

At the moment the consensus of opinion is that none of us know and as far as I can see, no one else has done the research to find out?
So as others are interested apart from me I thought I could start by asking this question here.

I will also put a Poll below so you can answer it on this thread in detail if you want to and answer the poll too

Thank you

Veritee

[yoyo]

My mum had 'baby blues' but she said they lasted a year so I think looking at things she maybe had PNI for a while too. She didn't get the physical side of things or homicidal/suicidal etc but felt very low and was always bursting into tears. NO other female relatives had had PNI or PP (that they have said anyway)x

[natalie1985]

No one in my family, not close anyway, had PNI at all....Im the first!
Nat xxx

[cinders]

I'm also the first in my family to have had pni and I really hope I'm the last.
Love n hugs Cinders xxx

[susanneb1984]

My mum had the 3 day baby blues, but not pni!

xxxx

[twinmummy not logged]

My mum had a serious illness after I was born which they called at the time 'postnatal euphoria followed by manic depressive psychosis'. We have always called it 'postnatal depression' but known it was much more than that.

Reading through the info on PP which I found on here , I'm sure this is what she had. All the symptoms fit except she had this initial 'euphoria' which lasted a year, then the psychosis hit and returned many times over a 14 year period (mum had to be hospitalised each time) until finally they got her meds right.

My mum told me recently that her mum suffered bouts of mild depression but not any PNI, so did one of mums aunties and this same aunties grandaughter has manic depression. My mums brother also had depression.

Sadly, it appears depression really does run in my family

xxxxxxxxxx

[hannah457]

when i ask my mum if she ever suffered with pni she tells me that when i was born you had to just get on with it cos if you said you was feeling depressed you would get branded as a bad mother.
i think that horrid that she went through this illness on her own and she had to suffer in silence
love hannah xx

[newwie]

HI
My mother was diagnosed with puerperal psychosis
but didnt tell me till i had my daughter.
She was hospitalised.
Both my brothers suffered from depression and one of my brothers was hospitalised and sectioned due to the threat of killing himself.
But it seems to run in families i think thats been my experience.

Newwie

[cheshire]

I forgot to mention that my cousin also had PP. So the PP occurred on my father's side and the PNI on mum's side.

[JDM not logged]

Looking back at the time my sister was born (7 years younger than me) I am sure my mum had pni. She was always in bed dizzy and my dad had to care for us. She was very paranoid when I look back and never let us do anything like go swimming etc. I remember if she was not at home when I got in from school I knew she would be at the docs. She always had a headache and would take endless tablets to get rid of it. She told me when I was 9 and my sister was two that she was probably dying. In my teens I remember thinking fancy saying that to a 9 year old. I think after suffering myself that she had pni. She once said to me not to tell anyone she was ill at school or they might take me and my sister away. I think that is why it was never diagnosed as she and my father were afraid to admit what was really happening so they would invent other illnesses like, saying she had arthritis coming on cos of all the aches and pains or that she had low bp with the dizziness. As far as I know she never was diagnosed with anything maojor but this went on until my sister was about 5 and then she got a job and everyting was ok. I am convinced no one spotted what she had perhaps even her and Dad did not even realise. I am not particularly close and could never ask her about it, she does not know that I am suffering. We dont live close by anymore but we speak once per week on the phone, I do not think she could offer any support. I remember she used to drink a bottle of wine per night and when we would ask her about it she told us mummy cant sleep unless I drink all of this. I remember the shock and the memory of this coming back to me when my son was about 8 months old as I was doing exactly the same. I feel sorry for her really that there was nothing like this site to support her and she clearly did not know what was wrong. About two years ago she rang me and said she had been diagnosed with an under active thyroid and she said she was glas that she finally knew what was wrong with her. My partner and I cant beleive that she would have had this for 30 years undetected and therefore I firmly beleive that for the first 5 years of my sisters life she had PNI.

JDMx

[yorkslass]

As far as I am awear I am the first in my family to have had PND had it with the first 2 of my children but was not diagnosed with the first child and did not suffer from it when I had my 3rd child.

[sianyc]

No-one else is admitting to it!

My grendmother is so helpful and always inviting me up to spend the day with her, cooking and talking to me and helping with the kids. This makes me think that perhaps she suffered from it. She talks about how hard it was and how much my grandad had to help but never mention the dreaded D word

My mother's initial view was 'I just had to get on with it'. This didn't do much for the guilt when I couldn't do that. She isn't admitting anything though x