OBT Magazine

She is a full-time homemaker. And her biggest regret is that she did not address her problem at the start.

Linda (not her real name) became a victim of post-natal depression 16 years ago after her eldest child was born.

She struggled with it right through to the birth of her second son, three years later. And it continued until six months ago when she gave birth to her third child, a daughter.

She and her husband were ignorant about the causes and symptoms of post-natal depression when she gave birth to her two older children.

Linda had to cope on her own – with the tearfulness, the low moods and even suicidal thoughts.

The couple, unaware of the seriousness of her condition, didn’t even consult their family doctor about it. It was only recently, after the birth of her third child, that Linda realised that she might have post-natal depression.

She had read about it several times in newspapers and magazines in recent years. She and her husband agreed that there was no shame in admitting that she is suffering from it. So they sought treatment.

Just two weeks after seeing a psychiatrist and taking her medication daily, Linda, now 40, felt her mood lifting. She became calmer and was better able to cope with her daily activities without feeling stressed out.

Linda didn’t speak to Mind Your Body, but her doctor, consultant psychiatrist Helen Chen, of KK Women’s &amp Children’s Hospital, told us her story with some changes in personal details to protect her identity.
‘Whenever she was under stress, Linda had morbid thoughts of killing her children and taking her own life,’ says Dr Chen who specialises in perinatal psychiatry and women’s mental wellness.

‘If only she had seen a doctor right from the beginning she would have spared herself and her family all that suffering.’

Post-natal depression, if left untreated, can drag on for many years, she says. And sadly, women who suffer from it lose out on the chance to bond with their babies. They also miss out on the joy of their children’s childhood.

But there are women who have an even more severe form of post-natal illness: puerperal psychosis, which may cause them to harm or kill their children, or to take their own lives.

Like in the case of Andrea Yates, the former nurse from Texas who, in 2001, drowned her five children, aged six months to seven years, in a bathtub.
At her trial, she was found not guilty on grounds of insanity and is in a mental facility where she is undergoing treatment.

There have been a few cases in Singapore of women suffering from post-natal depression who have taken their own lives or killed their babies.

Another of DrChen’s patients, who wanted to be known only as Wendy, gave birth to a baby girl six months ago. During her confinement month, the 34-year-old receptionist found herself feeling depressed, irritable and weepy.

When she was upset, she became very tense, hyperventilated, and her body and limbs would go numb. On a few occasions, she passed out.

‘It was very scary for me and my family when I worked myself into that state. There were times when I wished I could stop breathing and just die,’ recalls Wendy.

Once, when it happened, her family rushed her to the Accident &amp Emergency Department at Tan Tock Seng Hospital.

‘When my husband and I argued, I would scratch and hit him to the point that he sought a Personal Protection Order from the police,’ she says.

‘It was such a nightmare. I was very frightened of what I might do to myself and my baby.

‘I hallucinated and had all kinds of morbid thoughts such as of my maid killing my baby. I thought that I was being attacked spiritually.’

Thankfully, her family and friends realised that she was having a hard time emotionally and advised her to consult Dr Chen.
With medication and counselling, Wendy ‘could feel the difference’ as her depression slowly lifted.

‘Many women suffer in silence because of the stigma of mental illness, and the shame of acknowledging that they are not well at a time when family and friends expect them to be happy and joyful,’ says Dr Chen.

According to her, depression affects a woman’s well-being, and her ability to bond well and care properly for her baby.

‘If she is not able to nurture a good relationship with her baby,’ she says, ‘and the infant is not attached to her, she may have difficulties developing a close relationship with her children as they grow up – as happened in Linda’s case.’

Linda’s difficulties with her two older children, now in their teens, added to her frustrations, which compounded her untreated post-natal depression.

Research has shown that mothers who are depressed tend to have negative parenting styles, such as being over-intrusive in their children’s activities. They can also be more irritable and impatient, or withdrawn and unresponsive, thus stunting the infant’s intellectual and emotional development.