As a GP, watching my wife suffer from postpartum psychosis was unbearable 

Henry and Jenny and their two young children Rueben and Lilly.  CREDIT: JULIAN ANDREWS

Many mothers with post-partum psychosis are often misdiagnosed. 

By Henry Thomas-

13 FEBRUARY 2016

It was three weeks after my wife Jenny gave birth to our second child, Libby, that her mood suddenly changed. 

Previously calm and happy, enjoying bonding with our little girl, she became highly emotional when her Caesarean scar began to cause her pain. But it was when she went into our bedroom, pulled out a drawer and threw its contents across the room – an action that was utterly out of character - that I knew something was seriously wrong.

That day, last June, marked the onset of Jenny’s postpartum psychosis, a severe mental illness triggered by childbirth. 

It causes sufferers to become overwhelmed by high and low moods, paranoia and delusions. Nobody really knows why, beyond an assumption that hormones released during and after pregnancy play a significant part. Although it affects one in 500 mothers, the condition is almost unheard of.

Jenny was extremely unwell for six months, most of which we spent apart, while she was treated in specialist psychiatric units. For five months, our newborn daughter was with her, which meant our two-year-old son Reuben and I were separated from them both.

It was a horrendous period, which almost pushed me to breaking point. As her husband, and a doctor, I wanted desperately to make her better, but there was nothing I could do.

Yet we are among the lucky ones - as a medic, I knew how to search for the best care available. Most families in the same situation do not, and sadly, 80 per cent never receive it.

Even so, I was left furious with how our local mental health services handled us, at times. Next week, NHS England is expected to publish a report on the improvements that are required in mental health care.                                                                    

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