For mothers battling with post-natal illness, the self-awareness and clarity of thought that would encourage them to seek help from a doctor can be exactly the qualities their illness has taken away from them.
As an alternative, some women seek help from the privacy and safety of their own homes via the internet.
One site offering help and support for women with post-natal illness is run by the charity PNI Org UK.
It was founded 20 years ago by Veritee Reed Hall when she fell ill following the birth of her daughter.
“I had fostered two other children before that. I never thought I would have children of my own. I thought I knew what being a mother was all about, but I didn’t.”
On the right, Veritee explains what she set out to do with the charity.
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Veritee suffered post-natal illness twenty years ago. At that time, she found that there was very little support available, and a considerable amount of ignorance about the illness.
Having been involved in work in the field for twenty years, does she feel that the situation has improved for women with post-natal illness?
“In some areas, yes. More women can go to their doctors and the doctors have heard of intrusive thoughts and don’t jump on the bandwagon of, “Oh my God, this person is going to kill their children,” it’s beginning to be better understood by the medical professionals.”
But, Veritee still believes that there is a degree of ignorance around post-natal illness, and is critical of a tendency within the media to sensationalise the issue. She would like to see it more widely known just how common postnatal illness is to remove any stigma still attached to it.
“If you realise that one in seven to one in ten women get this, it’s actually not an abnormal part of being a Mum for a lot of people. And while there’s the journalistic idea of wanting to put up shocking stories of how awful it was, most of those shocking stories are just like anyone elses. Any other shocking story I’ve ever read could be me. It’s the thing that this is unusual - it isn’t. One in seven women gets this. The sooner it’s understood that that is so, I think the sooner we perhaps get more treatment available, more help, routine counselling, services to help women through which are sadly kind of needed.”
The PNI Org UK website allows women to share the darkest sides of their illness and makes for harrowing reading. Whilst giving women the chance to tell their stories in their own words could lift the veil that shrouds post-natal illness, Veritee is not convinced that sites such as her's are able to reach a wide enough audience.
“I don’t know how much good it does. It allows people to offload, it allows us to say what we thinking and what we feel, which is great, but the worry that I have after all these years is that we’re talking to ourselves."
Even if this is the case, the site is clearly a very valuable resource for women looking for reassurance during a frightening period of their lives. The charity is staffed by fellow sufferers, or women who have successfully recovered from post-natal illness.
“And that’s great because sometimes women with this thing have never even talked to another person who feels the way they feel, and most people say it’s such a relief, people understand what I’m talking about here, they feel the way I feel.”
The sense of desperation which drives many women to her site means that Veritee feels a strong sense of responsibility for those who use the forum and devotes a lot of time and energy to maintaining it in the best way possible.
“We are very careful that we are all women with PNI but we’re not advising anybody and we’re not experts. I’ve been on the net a long, long time and I have seen so much damage by people that don’t understand the huge responsibility of running such a forum in any issue.”
On the benefits of the arrival of the internet Veritee says:
“I have huge confidence in this wonderful new thing where people can access help and support from their living room - fantastic resource. But I also have huge fears because I know how hard it is to do it properly. As long as it’s done responsibly and objectively, then you’re alright.”