Learn more about the
Rebuild book.
Check out: How I had a baby and survived!
Depression in Pregnancy and Postpartum
I wrote the book Rebuild from Depression (coming summer 2009, though there
are excerpts
here), after
struggling for years with depression, beginning in my pregnancy.
The signs appeared early in my pregnancy: my fatigue was so bad I
could not get off the couch for most of the first trimester. By the
second trimester, depression became severe. In the last two weeks
of the 40-week pregnancy, I had psychotic episodes which continued
into the first weeks of my baby's infancy. My case was severe; the
book describes my story and the answers I discovered about the
important link between brain health and food nutrients.
The book was scheduled to be released in 2008 but something pretty
wild happened: I got
pregnant.
When I discovered I was pregnant, I stopped nearly all of my work
and focused on taking care of myself. I began planning what we
would do if my depression became severe again. I likened it to
"estate planning" when I made my announcement on the Rebuild blog. I went as far as
getting my own personal case manager, the head of a county health
agency to boot. She was my ace-in-the-hole if my care providers
needed to interact about medical interventions and how those
interventions might affect my mental health status.
It turns out that I really did not need a personal case manager
after all. I had some rough spots which you can find on the
pregnancy and postpartum section of the blog, but I made it
without falling into a deep pit. I wrote a rather long reflective
article on the tools that I used to get me through:
Depression in pregnancy and postpartum: Second baby,
second chance. I
hope that this information can help you reduce your struggle with
depression.
Additional
reading:
Depression in
pregnancy
Postpartum
depression symptoms
Zoloft and
breastfeeding