·        Although you are feeling tired and exhausted you find it very difficult to get off to sleep, and once you are asleep you may find that your sleep pattern is very disturbed. You may be easily woken or find you wake a lot earlier in the mornings than usual.

 ·        Palpitations, panicky feelings, anxiety/panic attacks

·        Feeling depressed. You may feel low and unhappy for most of the time or all of the time. Often you will feel worse at certain times of the day like in the morning or in the evening.

·        Losing all interest or desire to have sex or any kind of intimacy with your partner. This may cause your partner to feel rejected if they do not understand why you have no interest in this.

 ·        Or perhaps it’s not just sex… you may find that you can’t enjoy or be interested in anything.

 ·        Loss of appetite or forgetting to eat or on the opposite end of the scale you may comfort eat and then feel guilty afterwards.

·        You may become extremely irritable with friends and family, other children or perhaps even with your new baby. The person likely to get the brunt of this though is your partner, who more often than not probably won’t understand what is going on.

·        Bouts of weepiness over things that would often not make you react.

·        Feeling desperate for rest. You may feel trapped or feel like you can’t get a moments peace for yourself.

·        You may worry so much that your baby might scream, or choke, or be harmed in some way that you are afraid to be alone with him or her. Instead of feeling close to your baby, you may feel detached. You can't work out what your baby is feeling, or what your baby needs. Even if you have strong loving feelings for your baby, you can still feel anxious. Most new mothers worry about their baby’s health, but PND can make this overwhelming. You may worry; That you might lose your baby through an infection, mishandling, faulty development or a 'cot death' or about 'snuffles', or how much weight your baby is putting on, If your baby is crying or is too quiet, or if they have stopped breathing or that you might harm your baby or worry about your own health more than usual

 

·        You may find that you need reassurance all the time from your partner, the health visitor, the GP, your family or a neighbour. You may feel panicky - your pulse races, your heart thumps and you may feel that you have heart disease or are on the brink of a stroke. You may wonder if you have some dreadful illness, or if you will ever have any energy again. The fear of being left alone with all this can cause even the most capable person to cling desperately to their partner, not wanting to be left alone.

·        You may blame yourself for your baby crying or feel that it is your fault that you can’t comfort them.

·        Wanting to withdraw from your child, or not feeling that you have bonded with them

 

 

If you think you have any of the warning signs or just 'aren't feeling yourself' do talk to someone you trust and go and see your GP or other Medical Practitioner if only for reassurance. If your are developing Post Natal Depression, the quicker you receive treatment the faster you will recover.