Too sad to join NHS post-natal depression group!

By Liz Lockhart

A young mother who is suffering from post-natal depression has been told that he would ‘bring down’ other mothers if she joined an NHS support group.

This startling situation was exposed in the Daily Mail this week. Rachael Dobson was told that she was too unhappy to be allowed to join other mums in the same situation in a bid to recover.

Rachael, 22, has been let down by two services who should have been there to help her - no, not let down, downright neglected and insulted. On the first occasion Rachael was shocked when a health visitor refused to refer her to the group and then a mental health nurse also refused to help her. The mental health nurse told her that she should ‘work through’ her problems on her own.

Having suffered from severe post-natal depression following the birth of her son Andreas, Mrs. Dobson is now setting up her own charity to help other sufferers.

‘The health visitor told me there was a support group where women suffering from post-natal depression would meet p but she said to me: ‘You’re two pegs above them and you’ll bring them all down’’.

‘It was like being told I was too unhappy to go to the group but that was the whole point of the group’.

‘It would hardly be full of women joking around – all these women were suffering post-natal depression.’

‘I genuinely felt like I had been slapped round the face. Post-natal depression is very misunderstood but it had a devastating effect on me.

‘Some days I couldn’t physically get up and my husband would have to take the day off and drag me out of bed. I’ve always been very active and sociable but post-natal depression knocked me sideways.’

Rachael developed post-natal depression just minutes after the birth of her son in February of last year. ‘The birth wasn’t exactly plain sailing. I had an emergency caesarean and I felt as if I was being attacked’ she said.

‘When Andreas was delivered I was put in a side room on my own and looking over into the cot I was not met with love or joy, just nothing’ she added.

Her feeling got worse after she and her husband took their son back to their home in Shropshire. Rachael says ‘For the first few weeks I would cry when my husband walked through the door and would launch into rageful fits of anger.’

Rachael’s situation was helped after she and her husband moved to a different area in Shrewsbury and was under the care of a different health visitor.

Rachael was banned from being on her own with her son for a four month period after Social Services were involved. After this time her condition improved and she was considered ‘safe’.

Now she has set up her own support group which is called the Pandas Foundation for other mothers suffering from post-natal depression.

‘I feel lie I was left on my own by the health visitor’ she said. ‘I was lucky that I had my family to fall back on for help and I feel like I’m coming out the other end of the post-natal depression now which is why I want to help others.’

‘I feel let down by the health visitor who refused to help e and almost led me to lose my family’ she concluded.

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