For as long as she can remember, Isabel wanted to be a mother. “When I was growing up, I didn’t know if I was going to get married , I didn’t know a lot of things, but I knew I would be a mother at some point,” she told 7NEWS.com.
au . That day finally came in 2019 when she fell pregnant with her son, Ollie. Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today Isabel’s excitement about motherhood was soon overshadowed by anxiety as Ollie was born five weeks premature.
The Sydney mother’s mental health only worsened when she brought Ollie home. Darkness was weighing her down, making the simplest tasks seem difficult. “I would just cry because I had nothing left to give,” the now 42-year-old said.
“I was depressed after something that was supposed to be so good. “Being a mother was my life dream.” Isabel remembers struggling to understand her muddled feelings.
“I was like, ‘It makes no sense. That’s not a bad thing that’s happened to me, it’s a really good one’,” she said. “But I’m not doing well.
” She visited her GP for help and was diagnosed with postnatal depression, a depression that comes on within 12 months after having a baby. Four out of five mums go through “baby blues” in the first week of having a baby. But while “baby blues” usually pass on their own, postnatal depression involves more severe symptoms that often interfere with the parent’s ability to function normally.
At least one in every five women and 1 in 10 father.