How Family and Friends can help:
Family and friends have a crucial role to play in supporting women with Perinatal Mood Disorders.
Woman often don't realise or want to acknowledge that they are suffering from a PMD. Sometimes they develop gradually making it hard for a woman to notice the change. As someone close to them you will be better able to see or tell because they’re not behaving as they usually do.
What Are The Signs You Should Look For?
If you think someone is suffering from a PMD, gently encourage them to call Menucha or speak to a trained professional. Or you yourself can call us for advice
Menucha Information & Referral Line
Monday - Friday: 9.30am - 1.30pm
Monday - Thursday: 8pm - 10pm
Whether pregnant or post-birth, there are signs that you should look out for:
Withdrawing from contact with other people
Difficulty bonding with their baby, looking after them only as a duty and not wanting to play with them
Speaking negatively all the time and claiming that they're hopeless
Frequently crying for no obvious reason
Losing their sense of humour
Neglecting themselves, such as not washing or changing their clothes
Losing all sense of time, such as being unaware whether 10 minutes or 2 hours have passed
Even if only some of these signs are present, ask yourself:
- Does the way they are thinking or feeling seems unusual for them?
(especially if they say that this is not normal for them)
- Has their functioning has been affected for two weeks or more?
If you can answer “yes” to both these questions they may be experiencing a PMD and you should seek help.
The Help You Can GIve
Whether pregnant or post-birth, there are signs that you should look out for:
Give as much practical help as possible. PMDs make sufferers feel extremely tired and small tasks feel huge.
Reassure the person that they will recover and this is only a small stage in their life which will end soon. Repeat this reassurance often, so they themselves begin to believe it.
Encourage them to rest as much as possible, offer to look after the baby and other children or to send in meals so they don't have to worry about that.
It is very important to try and encourage them to seek professional help if they have not already done so. Perinatal Mood disorders will not just disappear on their own and very often some kind of treatment is needed. Its been proven the earlier treatment begins the quicker the recovery.
But most importantly just be there for them, listen to them if they want to talk, go out with them if they want to go out, pass them tissues if they are crying, just support them and let them know you are there for them.