When Sofii Lewis packed a bag for a mother and baby mental health unit, she thought she would be home within a fortnight.<\/p>\n
Instead, the 27-year-old spent five months there – time she said saved her and her daughter’s lives.<\/p>\n
Diagnosed with OCD and postpartum psychosis tendencies after giving birth, Sofii said she had \u00ab\u00a0no idea\u00a0\u00bb how unwell she was.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0I knew I wasn’t safe. But I didn’t think I was out of control.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
Postpartum psychosis is a rare but severe mental illness that begins suddenly in the days or week after birth, affecting around one in 1,000 mothers. It is treatable but can escalate quickly.<\/p>\n
Experts say specialist support for postpartum psychosis is now available across Wales.<\/p>\n
After a difficult pregnancy and birth, Sofii, from Aberdare, Rhondda Cynon Taf, said she knew instantly something was not quite right when she was handed her newborn daughter.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0There was nothing. I had no interest, even though I had just given birth to my first child.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
In the days and weeks after, she struggled to sleep and was plagued by a beeping noise in her bedroom at night, that was neither her phone nor the baby monitor.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0I thought it must have been someone trying to buy Evie as my brain had connected that the beeping noise sounded like a till or a checkout.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0It makes no sense to me now but that felt so real at the time,\u00a0\u00bb she said.<\/p>\n
Sofii said she found herself getting angry every time Evie cried, so she visited a counsellor and explained her feelings.<\/p>\n
The counsellor told her she might benefit from a mother and baby unit.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0I didn’t know they existed,\u00a0\u00bb Sofii said.<\/p>\n
According to the NHS, symptoms of postpartum psychosis vary and can change rapidly, including mania, depression, confusion and hallucinations – and can happen to any woman.<\/p>\n
It can last several weeks or longer and is much less common than postnatal depression and anxiety.<\/p>\n
Sofii said she was fearful about being separated from her partner and thought it would be like a \u00ab\u00a0prison\u00a0\u00bb, initially feeling \u00ab\u00a0hysterical\u00a0\u00bb.<\/p>\n
However, she said the unit was much more like halls of residence, living with other women with shared experiences, alongside medication, therapy and staff helping her bond with her baby.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0She [Evie] was 16 weeks and that’s the first time I’d done skin-to-skin [contact] with her, and that was a really big moment for me.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
Sofii said leaving the intense support of the ward after a long stay was hard but three years on she now wants to help other mums by raising awareness and encouraging others to ask for help if they need it.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0They aren’t alone in this and when you are in it, it does feel like the most isolating thing in the world.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0You think ‘I’ll never get back to [being] a normal mum’, but you will,\u00a0\u00bb she said.<\/p>\n
Dr Sally Wilson works at Action on Postpartum Psychosis, a charity she said saved her life 11 years ago almost immediately after the birth of her daughter.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0In my mind I had died. I was living in an afterlife and being punished for something that happened to my daughter,\u00a0\u00bb she said.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0At that point I was diagnosed with postpartum psychosis.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0I was completely detached from reality. It was really scary and I was admitted to a general psychiatric ward and separated from my baby at the time.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
Wilson said it took her \u00ab\u00a0a long time to recover\u00a0\u00bb although specialist care had improved since her experience.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0We now have perinatal specialist teams in all the health boards in Wales,\u00a0\u00bb she added.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0We have a mother and baby unit in Swansea and there is a unit that’s just opened in Chester, which is a collaboration between NHS England and NHS Wales.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
Wilson said there was still \u00ab\u00a0plenty of work to be done\u00a0\u00bb to raise awareness of the condition with expectant parents, the public, as well as healthcare professionals.<\/p>\n
Prof Arianna Di Florio from Cardiff University said it was important to raise awareness of the condition without creating anxiety or worry for women.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0While it is very rare, it’s also very treatable,\u00a0\u00bb she said.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0It’s really terrifying but there are treatments that work very well and most women recover with some never getting ill again.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0The prognosis is very good.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
Di Florio said that lots of things like outreach were being done well, but it remained a difficult condition to detect, especially when there is no history of mental illness.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0I know it’s easy for me to say but I think it’s a very important message to say that nobody chooses to get postpartum psychosis, it can happen to anyone.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
If you’ve been affected by the issues in this story, help and support is available via BBC Action Line.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When Sofii Lewis packed a bag for a mother and baby mental health unit, she thought she would be home within a fortnight. Instead, the 27-year-old spent five months there – time she said saved her and her daughter’s lives. Diagnosed with OCD and postpartum psychosis tendencies after giving birth, Sofii said she had \u00ab\u00a0no […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9924","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9924\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}