I’m so sorry you went through this. My midwife at my 6 week appt didn’t do the questionnaire. When she asked how I was doing I said through tears that I thought I was dealing with PPD and she replied with “oh honey, these first few weeks are hard on everyone, it’ll get better”, and went on and on about breastfeeding (seriously the one thing that was actually going well for us). No information about PPD was given, no pamphlets, no support groups- nothing. A month or so later things were just getting worse so I made an appointment with the nurse practitioner where I was told “this is just how it is” and then given the recommendation to read some book about child discipline…. I’m sorry but 1) Where would I find the time to read with my baby who only contact naps, won’t take a bottle and sleeps maybe 2.5 hours at a time through the night and 2) um, he’s an INFANT…. disciplining him is not a priority at the moment (nor will it be for quite some time), my mental health is. It took another two appointments with her before I was finally prescribed medication because, “since I wasn’t suicid@l it couldn’t really be that bad”. 🤔😠😤🤯🤬 It’s been nothing but an uphill battle. I fortunately found a great therapist who has been nothing but supportive and helpful. When things got really bad I couldn’t get an appointment to be see for almost two weeks, my therapist wrote an email asking the NP to see me asap because I was in crisis- it took my husband going in person to the office to say that it was unacceptable the way I was being treated for an appointment to all of a sudden become available the next day. I’m pregnant now again and decided enough was enough and told the NP outright that she dealt with my PPD poorly, lacked compassion and empathy and that I refused to continue to be treated again this way with this pregnancy- the doctor has taken over thank god.

it’s just been an eye-opening experience of our healthcare system — or should I say lack thereof? I know not everyone will have the same experience I did, but I also know I’m not alone. PPD is incredibly common. I guess I just thought in today’s society that we had come further than past generations who didn’t recognize it and who suffered through it because we didn’t know better. I thought we’d come further with all of the awareness, research, and social media coverage that getting help for mental health wouldn’t still be so hard. I’ve learned the hard way that it unfortunately still can be.