OT more desparate prayers needed

ok, thought someone was entering the room, on call psychiatrist tricked me into taking my medication but still calling 911 to get me into the hospital, this is a disaster. Told me if I took my meds whilst he was on the phone he'd do nothing, then whilst I handed the phone to my husband so I could take the meds he got our address and called 911, no one has showed up yet, but they will soon, which means hours sat waiting to be assessed.

Please pray

Anne

Anne, I will offer up prayers for you to receive the care you need and for your medical personnel to be wise and competent and to help you return to good health. Please be brave and patient and understand that the doctor wants you to be safe. Your children need you safe and healthy. Remember that the road to health may be longer than we want, but that shortcuts are few and usually not a good idea. Be strong, my friend. I live a few hours east of you, across the mountains. Do what the doctors say, take care and when you are strong and back on solid footing I will come see you. We'll have our own RCTQ meet-up and will have a go at that outrageously wonderful quilt shop in downtown Bellevue.

Hugs and prayers, Sunny

Sunny's words are very wise. You've got my good thoughts coming your way Anne.

((((((((((hugs)))))))))))) Michelle in Nevada

who the .......are these idiots who tell you one thing then reneg on the statement immediately. seems to me they really all do need their collective heads read. post natal exhaustion away from family and home, lack of sleep, probly not eating as you should for breastfeeding and look'n after a newborn plus two other toddlers, running the house, shopping for grocerys, making meals, getting laundry done, making it to appts for whoever needs what done, and sometime in the middle of all that you're expected to act like whatever a normal human being is, oh and maybe get in a shower now and then. they also expect you to get to church as well. sorry but i'm exhausted thinking about it. i do recall those early days tho. it is not easy with lack of sleep for anyone. i wonder how much help around the house and with the two older kids you husband and his family who live around there are. ack, i dont understand why they expect so much of you. oh man how i wish i lived back there again. i'd show'em all the thing or three. grrrrrrrrr, j.

"Anne Rogers" wrote ... ok, thought someone was entering the room, on call psychiatrist tricked me into taking my medication but still calling 911 to get me into the hospital, this is a disaster. Told me if I took my meds whilst he was on the phone he'd do nothing, then whilst I handed the phone to my husband so I could take the meds he got our address and called 911, no one has showed up yet, but they will soon, which means hours sat waiting to be assessed.

Please pray

Anne

Anne, The most important thing is to STAY CALM - hard task I know, but that is important. You need to keep you wits about you and not fly off the handle.

Think good thoughts about your children and what you can do with them when you are well.

Please please stay calm, the more upset you get the more 'they' will have a strangle hold over you.

As for your husband, maybe he is just as frightened as you and doesn't know what to do so takes his scary feeling and dumps it on you making you even more vulnerable.

Prayers are continually coming your way.

This is probably the best thing for you in the long run. My prayers are with you and the family. It happened a couple or three times to a close friend. She is on the road to recovery, though it takes a while.

Yes, stay calm.

Explain to the day program that you already have XYZ appointments, take the docs supporting that with you, and go to those appointments.

Also, what is to stop you taking baby with you amd feeding during class, or during one of those appointments, if that is what baby wants and needs? It may help to get across to them just why you are in this state. If they cannot cope with that, ask for a day program that can as this is why you have been deemed in need of it.

THEY HAVE TO COPE WITH BABY, and with bay being breast fed by you, one way or another. Baby is physically dependant on you right now, and the major trigger for your present state, so that HAS to be part of the 'treatment'.

That almost certainly wouldn't allow that.

The US is stuck in the dark ages with regards to postpartum depression treatment, there is one in patient program in the whole country and even there, babies are not allowed to stay overnight, they just have extended visiting hours and pumps available. I can only find one reference to a day program specific for postpartum depression and again, the babies are not welcome, it's just short sessions to try and account for it.

So you are entirely correct and most other countries would agree and have mother and baby units for mental health, but the US doesn't. If I was still in the UK, I'd probably have gone into the hosptial a few weeks ago and be out by now.

Cheers Anne

Have you thought about weaning the baby? Your stress and all the medications can't be good for the child. Gen

Actually I was wondering too just what all the meds would do to a baby. It is unbelievable that there isn't major effect and the doctors would even allow it. Thinking over all the notes and comments on this I just have to think Anne and the kids might be better heading home across the pond to where there is care she is more comfortable with and her own family to help. Maybe a church community that is better too. I am with you Gen. Taria

absolutely not an option, research backs me on this, weaning a baby increases the rate of postpartum depression (presumably because your body thinks the baby has died) and breastmilk with medication in it, what little that even gets through for most meds is better than formula. Plus, it means I have to be involved with her even at times when I don't want to, far better than handing over care to the MIL.

Cheers Anne

Very much depends on the size of the molecules and if the medication would be safe for a baby if given at a weight dependent dose. SSRIs are generally very safe for breastfeeding and there has been tons of research on that. None of the other medications I take even go through to the breastmilk due to different molecule sizes and other scientific stuff.

Not possible, my parents are busy moving house, so we'd have no one to stay with, we have our own house, but we'd have to give our tenants two months notice and it's not furnished. My husband would have to stay in the US to work, so I'd be without him. Plus my parents don't believe in depression. Not really an option at all.

Anne

What a sad statement. Guess you'll just have to adapt some way. I can't imagine not wanting to care for a baby. Seems every time you're given an option, either it won't work or you don't want to do it. Sad, sad. Gen

Well it is sad, I'm severely depressed, why would it be anything but sad. Weaning would solve nothing, it would likely make things worse for the reason I gave, there is medical research backing up that weaning in the case of postpartum depression is actually worse for the mum than continuing to breastfeeding if that is what the mum desires and that is very much what this mum desires, if that was taken away from me, I'd have yet another thing to be upset about. I nursed both my other children well beyond a year and was disappointed not to get to the 2 years that the WHO recommends. I have severe depression, I don't want to care for myself, let alone anyone else, maybe I should be in hospital, but as I'm not considered to be a risk to myself or others I'm not, you'll have to trust the judgement of the professionals there. But right now the only reason I look after myself at all, particularly with regards to eating is so I can nurse, that may be wierd to you, but if I stopped nursing, I literally would have no reason to live.

Cheers Anne

Unless you've experienced the horrid blackness of depression you can't understand fully what Anne's going through. Yes, she's being oppositional. That's part of the depression -- if she could see a solution or believe something would work, she wouldn't be depressed. Not wanting to care for her baby is part of the depression. My suspicion is it's nature's way of protecting a helpless baby with a depressed mom -- mom doesn't want to see the baby so she hands it off to someone else to care for.

And that brings us to breastfeeding vs. weaning. I was a volunteer breastfeeding support for four years and have a tiny bit of knowledge. When the baby is weaned, the mom's body is suddenly deprived of prolactin. Prolactin is the wonderful hormone that breastfeeding moms produce that gives so many of us that peaceful, calm warmth and calm. Obviously, a severely depressed mom is short on prolactin in the first place and a sudden weaning would add to the chemical assault on her brain.

Anne is in a bad spot. She has no support system here and wouldn't have one back in England, either. It sounds like she comes from a religious background that is punitive and backwards. Depression, including postpartum depression, is a disease. I've watched my sister suffer (and nearly die) from depression for her entire adult life. She's never had children because she feared passing on that gene. When she's in the depths (and this goes for all depressives), there is no good answer to anything. She refuses all treatment because she believes it would make her worse rather than better. That attitude is part of the disease.

Please don't be judgmental or close your hearts to Anne's plight. You may not be able to relate to where she is. That doesn't mean she can simply put down her disease and join you and me in the happy world of sunshine and cheerful babies. If you have it in you to pray for Anne, then I believe she needs that very much. If you have the ability to send her a word or hope, she needs that too. Mostly all we can do for Anne is to listen to her and offer gentle words of love and hope. It's a bit of a bandaid on a broken bone, but still it's better than nothing. And it's far better than criticizing her. Pray that you never fall into the depths where Anne lives now.

Sunny

Sunny,

I agree wholeheartedly with your post. I have been and still am depressed - but fortunately for me, I have a wonderful caring family who have taken the time, albiet a very very long time, to understand where I am coming from. Being depressed is in my opinion, one of the worst mental illnesses you can have because no one doctor or shrink or whoever, fully understands the brain and what it does. It is still new territory in the medical world.

Anne, stay calm as I have said before and feed your baby when he/she needs it - it is OK to let someone else care for the baby (they will probably enjoy it anyway) - you will get better with the 'right' help and finding that seems to be difficult at the moment.

Don't give up whatever you do - there is a whole world of friends who care for you.

Warm hugs and prayers always.

Gen, It is a very real illness - the info below might help you understand a bit better. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Postpartum depression (PPD), also called postnatal depression, is a form of clinical depression which can affect women, and less frequently men, after childbirth. Studies report prevalence rates among women from 5% to 25%, but methodological differences among the studies make the actual prevalence rate unclear. Postpartum depression occurs in women after they have carried a child, usually in the first few months. Symptoms include sadness, fatigue, insomnia, appetite changes, reduced libido, crying episodes, anxiety, and irritability. The condition is surprisingly common. Current data suggests that 5 to 9 percent of women will develop postpartum depression, but less than one in five of these women will seek professional help" (Jacobs, 68). It is sometimes assumed that postpartum depression is caused by a lack of vitamins[citation needed], but studies tend to show that more likely causes are the significant changes in a woman's hormones during pregnancy[citation needed]. On the other hand, hormonal treatment has not helped postpartum depression victims. Many women recover because of a support group or counseling.[1][2]

I will step up and agree with Gen. I have had diagnosed clinical depression [including suicidal ideations], and am on constant vigilance to not get to those places again.

It takes a commitment to go after help, and campaign for it. I will not go on and on here, for reasons of not wanting to get nasty-grams sent to me.

G> What a sad statement. =A0Guess you'll just have to adapt some way. =A0I c= an't