Postpartum anxiety/postnatal depression?

I’m 4 weeks postpartum after having my little girl. She’s my miracle baby and I’ve wanted her for so long, all I’ve ever wanted was to be a mummy. We went through IVF to conceive her and have experienced miscarriages prior to having her. I had a difficult pregnancy which I struggled to enjoy and a traumatic labour which ended in an emergency c section after 4 days of being induced and in agony. Since she’s been born all I’ve felt is sadness, anxiety and frustration. It’s like I haven’t had that rush of happiness or joy and I feel so guilty and awful of a mum that all I do is cry every day when she won’t settle, won’t sleep, won’t eat and every time I hear her cry it’s like nails on a chalkboard I can’t stand it. I have these awful thoughts of leaving her even though I know I would never do it. I love her but I don’t want to be around her and I hate myself for feeling like this. On top of that I’m still recovering from my c section, I’m in pain with my engorged breasts and nipple pain from improper latching, I’m not sleeping a lot and I’m struggling with my postpartum body. My partner is so supportive and tries to help any way they can and take the stress off but I just don’t feel happy. I also panic whenever others are around my daughter in case she gets sick. I want so badly to be able to just enjoy this time as I’ve waited so long to have this 🥺💔 and it’s breaking my heart that I feel this way. Is this the baby blues or something much more?

in our community

3 days until c-section & my anxiety is so bad

Planed cs after emergency cs. I know this will be “different”. I know I won’t have the added trauma/ stressors… yet, I’m still extremely anxious. It hit me yesterday after my last OB apt when they gave me pre-op packets etc. I couldn’t sleep last night, and I’ve been anxious all day. How did you calm yourself before going in?

What if my anxiety is so bad, they say they need to put me to sleep to do it? I don’t know, that’s probably not how they decide to do that, but I’m just freaking out tonight 😞

C section

For the women who have had a C-Section, how long did you take pain meds for?

Headache and thirst

After some advice before I call triage unnecessarily. I drank 3 pints of water during the night as I was so thirsty and I am still super thirsty now. I’ve got a headache which isn’t really shifting even with paracetamol. I generally just feel a bit off. I’m just under 37 weeks.

I’ve had 3 negative gestational diabetes tests this pregnancy as I had GD in my last pregnancy and baby is measuring above 97th percentile.

Vaginal or c-section? Where’s your head at?

So many friends have started asking me what I’m thinking about birthing plan and to be honest I’ve not really thought about it (probably should at some point 🫣) A number of friends didn’t have great birthing experiences and ended up with emergency c-sections which got me researching planned ones despite it never previously being something I had considered.

I’m curious to see where other mums-to-be heads are at with this one & thoughts behind it? No judgement here! 🥰

C section mamas - tummy and around the incision still tender?

I had my c section 3.5 weeks ago and generally I’m feeling good but if I touch or put any pressure on my stomach above my c section then it’s still pretty tender.

Do others have this?

Naming after a grandparent

I really like the name Christopher which is my dad's name, and would like to name my boy after him. What do you think?