I haven’t been able to post for a while, with so much going on in my work and family life. But I’m back with a vengeance today, as you can hopefully see by the handful of postings I’ve made.
I heard from Shirley Halverson a while back. Her daughter died as a result of postpartum psychosis, and she wrote her daughter’s story in a book called Beth: A Story of Postpartum Psychosis. It is available at www.authorhouse.com or www.Amazon.com.
Shirley says their experience with the medical field was indescribable, and that they knew nothing in 1986. Sadly enough, so many OB/GYNs, primary care physicians and others still know very little and seem unprepared to treat many of us in 2004.
I can’t tell you how many women I’ve talked to who have been ignored, been told it’s just the baby blues, been told they’ll get better with exercise and rest, been told they can’t be treated because they don’t have the right kind of insurance to cover psychiatric care. The list goes on. I talked to a young woman last week (hey Pam!) who is a nurse working in a trauma unit of a hospital, and she said she was completely unprepared for her illness, and neither are any of her colleagues. She felt bad that she herself didn’t get the best help available immediately, and she feels bad that other women who come to her hospital may not get the right help either. So she has begun to work to fix that situation.
We all need to work to fix that situation.
