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My Postpartum Depression Story

One Mom, in Her Own Words

By Kathy Woltman

In the midst of this, weary of being sick for so long, I tried to take my own life. I just didn't think I could go on feeling like I was. I had run out of energy. My new doctor literally saved me by promising me I would get well and that he wouldn't give up until I was. He called me every single night. He saw me once a week.

At the beginning of May he suggested we try Anafranil. I knew it was a good OCD drug and I was eager to try it. The first day I took it, things were better. Within one week, I was well. It was hard to believe I had ever been sick. This was an unusually fast response, but I have learned that a person usually can tell within a week or two (at the most) if the medication is really helping them. If a doctor keeps you on a medication for weeks on end, and you are not getting better, you probably need a different medication – and a different doctor!

The remainder of that year was one of the best of my life. I had never been happier, and I had learned now to be very grateful for "normalcy" and good health and the all of the other "little" things. I enjoyed my daughter more than I had ever enjoyed a baby. In fact, I wanted another baby! However, I did not want to go through PPD again.

I talked to my psychiatrist and did my own research, too. If a woman who has had PPD in the past goes back on the medication that worked for her within 24 hours of giving birth she has a 95 percent chance of not getting PPD again. If she doesn't, she has a 67 percent chance that she will.

I decided that I wanted another baby and that I would simply go right back on nafranil after the baby was born. Life throws us curveballs, however. I planned on staying on my medication for one full year as the experts suggest. Then I decided I would try to get pregnant. I was doing quite well on a low dose of Anafranil and no longer needed the Trazadone or Klonopin. I planned on going off the Anafranil in May of this year and then trying to conceive.