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My Postpartum Depression Story

One Mom, in Her Own Words

By Kathy Woltman

Well, I got pregnant in January! I was on 50 mg of Anafranil at that time. I immediately called my doctor and was advised to go off the Anafranil right away. Anafranil is a very potent antidepressant and not considered to be one of the safer drugs during pregnancy.

For the first trimester I did pretty well. However, during week 18 of my pregnancy I was greatly saddened to feel my old PPD symptoms resurface. The symptoms were not as severe, but they were ruining the quality of my days, anyway. Now what would I do? I didn't want to take any medication while pregnant but I couldn't see living like this until the baby arrived! Then, I was also worried that if I didn't get a handle on my illness now ... what would happen when the baby got here?

I once again began researching everything. I spent five weeks finding as much information as I could on antepartum depression. I spoke to my OB and my psychiatrist. I called Teratogen Services in my state. I read every single archived message on the Pregnancy and Depression board at ParentsPlace. I wanted to meet real women who had had to take meds while pregnant and had had healthy babies. Eventually, I decided I wanted to take the medication and that my research showed that there was no higher incidence of miscarriage, stillbirth, birth defects and so on among women who took medication for depression than the general population.