Your video spoke to me on so many levels. At times it felt like I was watching my own life over again.
I was with my partner at the time for 3 years when I fell pregnant with my first daughter. I was so excited as a first time mum I thought it was going to be wonderful. During this time my mum was an alcoholic as that was the way she was dealing with things and my partner at the time was also drinking to suppress things he had going on. We were doing long distance, our relationship was extremely toxic and I had witnessed things I wish I’d never seen.
Once I had my daughter things only started to get worse. I felt completely alone. I remember going to the doctors after a night of almost ending my life. And they put me on medication. I was on it for a while. It started making me feel like I had been hit by a bus so asked if there was anything else that could be done. I was referred to maternity mental health and said the wait could possibly be 3 months. It ended up being about 15 weeks before I was seen.
I have no idea how I got through my daughter's first year of life. But 2.5 years on I’ve just had another baby. Again I have postnatal depression, again I was put on medication and again I was told there would be a wait. I asked if I could go private to be seen before 3 months and was told it would cost $150 per session. Some mothers don’t have 3 months.
I cannot thank you enough for being here to support all of us that struggle. I am doing my absolute best to promote this action because more needs to be done. Thank you for being the voice of many