Thousands of new mothers are suffering in silence because their postnatal depression goes untreated, a new report claims. LIZ LAMB looks at the findings and speaks to two North East mums about battling depression

IT’S meant to be the happiest time of your life and a source of joy for all the family. Yet for some new mums, giving birth can plunge them into a downward spiral of despair and depression, with many too afraid to speak out for fear that their child will be taken from them.

According to a new study published yesterday, for the charity 4Children, thousands of young mothers are suffering in silence because their postnatal depression goes untreated.

It is feared that 35,000 mothers every year in England and Wales struggle with symptoms and do not get professional help. The study found that 49% of women did not seek professional help, with a third saying they were too scared to tell anyone about their depression because of fears over what might happen to themselves or their baby.

According to the Royal College of Psychiatrists, 10-15% of women suffer from postnatal depression and report feeling very low, struggling to look after the baby and find simple tasks difficult to manage.

While postnatal depression usually starts within a few months of birth, around one in three women experience symptoms in pregnancy which then continued.

Several celebrities including actress Gwyneth Paltrow, supermodel Elle Macpherson and Emmerdale star Suzanne Shaw, have spoken of their experiences of the condition, which experts argue should not be dismissed as the baby blues.

Mum-of-one Claire Keys knows only two well how devastating postnatal depression can be. She suffered from the illness following the birth of her daughter Eve, now four, and was so gripped by the condition that she was admitted to a psychiatric hospital and tried to take her own life.

Claire explains: “I was shocked by how postnatal depression took over me as a person. I became suicidal which is why I was admitted to hospital; it was for my own safety. I was admitted to hospital when my daughter was six months old.

“I had been seen by various professionals along the way. They knew what was wrong but I was detrimental to my own recovery. I tried to cover up how unwell I was.

“I was worried about them taking my baby away. The report shows that a lot of women worry about that but actually it is very rare.

“There’s a big shame about postnatal depression and there is a big guilt complex with it.

“Having a baby is supposed to be the most wonderful thing in the world but when that is not how you are feeling, certainly for me, I felt guilty – what did I have to feel depressed about?

“Postnatal depression is still stigmatised. I think a lot of people still refer to it as the baby blues but that is an insult to a very serious illness.”

Claire, who lives with husband Steve in Monkseaton, North Tyneside, became so ill she tried to commit suicide and was admitted to the Beadnell mother and baby unit at St George’s Hospital, in Morpeth, which specialises in helping women with postnatal depression.

She says: “It was not a cry for help. I was absolutely furious with the people who caught me in the act and stopped me. Now I owe them my life. If it was not for them, my husband would be without a wife and my daughter without a mother.”