Baby Brained for Life?

No Space for Thought

I've been wanting to write about a zillion different things recently, all positive and good and exciting. But somehow I'm not quite finding the time, or the impetus - in short, the energy isn't quite there. 


Internally it is - inside I'm zinging with ideas and positive goodness (mostly), but it's not making it out into the world somehow. I'm crabby with the kids too. Whilst inside I'm dying to do all kinds of fun things with them, when it comes to it I end up being Majorly Crabby Mum of the year (possibly decade if I'm honest) and that is NOT good. 


I think I know the problem though it doesn't make me feel any better. Despite our change in circumstances very much for the better, and our more comfortable lives, I'm still SO tired I feel I could just sleep all day long. I'm eating pretty healthily, the kids are sleeping well - still early risers but I'm getting a good solid block of sleep in the night - and I'm taking vitamins and supplements and exercising and getting out and about.... and yet my brain feels like a ship lost at sea on a still, foggy day. I can't think properly, I can't focus, I forget things at the drop of a hat and I tire so easily. It is all so VERY frustrating.


I remember feeling like this whilst pregnant but it's a year since my monkey girl was born and I should be feeling better by now, right?


Are women left baby-brained for life or is there an exit somewhere I missed due to the fog and the gazillion and one distractions that life with kids bring? Will it get better or am I to be a zombie forever more?


Is there a cure?! Any wonderful wise women out there to show me the way home.... to myself...?

Help! Your Experience of Support in Post-Natal Illness

Pregnancy

I've been working on some research the past couple of months for an important piece on post-natal illness and the kind of support networks and services which are available to sufferers and their families. Having suffered from PNI, and known many, many other Mums (and some partners) who have too, I know that this all-too-common illness is not given the attention and understanding it rightly deserves by our perinatal care systems.


I'm really keen to get this work out into the public spotlight but first I need some real-life stories and stats to back me up (or prove me wrong!). That's where you guys come in :) 


Below are links to a survey I've set up. You may take part either as a mother, partner, or on behalf of someone else. Taking part in the survey is completely confidential and anonymous. I know that for most, this is an extremely sensitive issue and it can be hard even to admit to yourself sometimes, let alone others. I want you to know I really appreciate your responses, and I hope that you feel you can be as honest and open about this as you wish to be. None of the questions are required, so you can answer as much or as little as you like.


The survey is split into two parts for technical reasons. So once you've finished the first part, just come back here and click on the second link. Obviously I'd prefer you to answer (or have a go at) both parts, but again, that's up to you.


Although the survey has a slight leaning towards UK-based support services, I'd be interested in responses from any other country too.


If you have any questions, concerns or anything else, please feel free to drop me an email: giveanearthly [at] gmail [dot] com.


Thanks!


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Questionnaire
Your Experience: Support Through Post-Natal Illness

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Taking Charge and Feeling Revived

For the last year or so and in particular the past 6 months I have been physically, mentally and emotionally knackered. Exhausted, fatigued, pooped. Many are the reasons, not least that we had one small child 18 months ago and have recently added another. But I've been seriously so knackered I've considered all sorts - drugs, therapies, counselling... you name it. My pride has prevented me from going down any of these routes and in the end it has been the resolve to lose my baby-weight that has done the trick. Within a couple of weeks of eating more raw foods, cutting out bread and most wheat products and drastically reducing dairy and limiting treats significantly as well as drinking copious quantities of green tea and water, I already feel hugely energised and more mentally alert, positive and confident. I wouldn't have believed it possible.

Increasingly over the last few years I have started to believe in taking charge of my own health rather than tripping off to the doctor every time something seems amiss. This has not always been an easy road - far from it - but it seems to work for me on the whole. My biggest hurdle has been depression, not least over the last year or so whilst coping with the many and varied new responsibilities and demands of motherhood, coupled with another pregnancy (nevermind the hardships of living on a half-built canal boat in Winter with a toddler!). Whilst pregnant I was offered referral to NHS help, should I want it. I didn't. I know that I am the only one who can successfully manage my depression - drugs only numb and confuse and therapies make me dwell on the problem(s). My way of dealing with it has to be just to take the good days and the bad together, and get on with things as much as I can.

I do feel that as a society we must take more responsibility for ourselves, particularly in terms of our health. Empowerment is the key. Talk to any woman who has had a beautiful, natural home-birth and she will mention the enormous feeling of achievement and empowerment. The same goes for our general health. If we continue to defer our healthcare to those who hold no personal knowledge of us and whose expertise is heavily sponsored by the most dominant drug companies, how can we have confidence that we are finding the best solutions for ourselves? As a result we end up feeling belittled, insignificant, lost, and our healthcare issues go largely unresolved. We all have choices when it comes to caring for our own health, and I implore you to use them. Nobody can know you and your own unique health issues better than yourself, much like you know what kind of foods you like best, or which types of exercise you're most suited to. So go on, take charge and find the healthiest you you can!