Postpartum Depression: My Personal Journey

By Hellen Njenga

Mental health is very important and most especially to a mother who just gave birth. Postpartum depression is real and to the women and men who go through it, it can be hard. This book is my own experience and a simple research on PPD. It gives the diagnosis, and the treatment of the depression. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hellen Njenga
• Release date: Dec 19, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393207399

Book preview

My PPD Experience

I was moody and angry all the time. My baby cry would wake me up and I felt bothered. I hated the schedule and having to give up my sleep for the second time. For 2years I had not known what having a good night sleep felt like and having a second child meant that another 2-3years of no sleep. I was exhausted and tired; I had no energy to go on. It was early signs of PPD but no one around me knew what it was. I had read about it on google when I was pregnant but I was like, these things do not happen to people like me. Mental health education is not available where I was born and I thought mental illnesses only affect the lunatics as they were called. I had seen a few cases where my neighbor gave birth and she ran mad as people would call it. She would hurt herself and she would be admitted to a mental health facility for a month. When she came back, people avoided her and were afraid of her. She was okay and she went back to work and when she gave birth to her second child, the same happened to her. She was labeled as (kikuyu language) mutumia uria ugurukaga agia ciana to mean the woman who runs mad after childbirth. Up till today that’s how she is referred. It is not fair to say that no one cares but people do not know much about mental health. Her case was a severe case of postpartum depression referred as postpartum psychosis but I only came to really understand it when I went through PPD. People think that mental health only affect the people who are in a mental health facility. The stigmatization of the crazy people makes people afraid of anything that has to do with a psychiatrist or a psychologist. Anything to do with mental health is a taboo and people have shut down on any information about it. I recall like it was yesterday when I walked into the bathroom ready to swallow all my meds. I was tired of the suffering and I needed to put an end to it. I looked at the Amoxyl tablets, the brufen and all the tablets that I was given at the hospital after delivery of my second child. As I was about to take them a voice told me to stop. I believe in God and so I believe He stopped me from taking the pills. I kept my tablets safe and went back to take care of my 4days old infant. This was not the last time I was going to try suicide but prayers plus journaling really helped me. I did not know what was happening since everyone was happy about the new arrival except