The Mental Mum

I am currently training to become a person-centred counsellor and I am wanting to dedicate the rest of my life to breaking the stigma around maternal mental health. I am trained in mental health peer support, mental health first aid, counselling listening skills and perinatal mood disorders. I have lived experience with postnatal depression, postnatal anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and adult diagnosis of ADHD. Why am I starting this business? I had my first son at the end of 2018 and both him and I nearly lost our life to maternal sepsis. After my traumatic birth, I struggled severely with PTSD and postnatal depression. I did not seek the help I needed because of the amount of shame I had around the feelings I was feeling. I then went on to have my second son in February 2021 before healing from my first and although the birth went well, I relapsed and spiralled into Postnatal Depression and Postnatal Anxiety. I was then diagnosed with ADHD at the age of 32. If I hadn’t had my mental health support group for local mothers, I wouldn’t be here to tell my story. My mental health journey has made me realise how little help there is for struggling mums and how there is such a stigma around poor maternal mental health. I want to bring light to the taboo topics surrounding motherhood and mental health and bring hope to those who are in their darkest days. We should never feel ashamed for talking about our feelings, nor should we ever feel alone in our feelings. Mental health is a continuum, we must learn how to take care of ourselves and talk about our troubles when the hard times hit. My hope is to enlighten the general population around maternal mental health and to provide a safe and healing place for mothers and birthing people to share their stories.