I know what you are going through- Post Partum Depression

All the women out there or partners of women who have ever, either given birth to a child/ been closely associated to someone who has given birth to a child- will definitely benifit from reading this- this is a psychologist's account of what she went through, herself, realizing much later, that what she was going through was actually post-partum depression.

This post will take you though the ups and downs/ the rollercoaster to self descovery and healing.

The title of the book is- ‘I know what you are going through’. It is a first hand account of a psychologist’s experience with post- partum depression- a condition that every 1 in 3 women faces after child birth but the awareness is next to nil.

This is the Preface to the Book- I know what you are going through that I am writing. Hope it heals.

Preface

Thirteen months after I had delivered my Son, a phone call from my childhood friend, prompted me to write this book. My friend called up and said, ‘I remembered you yesterday and cried’. I was surprised to hear what she said and could not understand the reason for her to cry. She went on to say, “I saw a documentary on premature babies and cried because it struck me like a jolt of lightening to see the plight of mothers who deliver pre mature babies. I realized how much you had gone through and you did not even share your feelings with anyone. You took it all in and did not even let anyone know.” These words of hers, it seems to me, ‘healed me’. I suddenly felt light in my heart and the first thought that came to my mind was that there would be so many women world over who would have felt the gamut of emotions like I did and out of those, there would still be a few who have not yet received a phone call, like the one that I had received and are probably still waiting to be healed.

Motherhood, I had heard, was a beautiful experience. When I delivered my baby, one and a half month premature, through an emergency C section surgery, the beautiful experience turned out to being an experience that I could not understand, cope with or enjoy, at least initially. My baby was born weak, frail, underweight and was gasping very hard for his breath. I realized many things much later. I could make sense of the sea of emotions that I was going through only after a few months of his birth. Writing this book has been a healing process for me and I hope that reading this book heals you too. I have gone through the same ordeals that all mothers of premature babies go through. Now, when I share my experiences of going through post- partum depression with people, most of them do not know the meaning of the word. They may know the experience, but do not know that it is a mental condition that may require doctor’s attention. This book is dedicated to all parents world over and I sincerely hope that reading this heals you because there are so many parents that are still waiting to get their acknowledgement.