I had no idea how unwell I really was
AFTER giving birth to her son Umar 11 months ago, Zebunisa Pathan suffered from postpartum psychosis and was sent miles away from home for treatment.
Even though she has a psychology degree, the 29-year-old didn’t realise how ill she was.
Zebunisa, from Leicester, said: “I couldn’t sleep, I was confused and I was behaving in a bizarre and erratic way. I was hearing and seeing things that weren’t there.
“I was running naked around the room and I couldn’t stop talking at a hundred miles an hour.
“I told my husband, ‘I need help. I’m ill’. But even though I knew something was wrong, I didn’t realise how unwell I was.”
A mental health crisis team wanted to admit Zebunisa to a psychiatric unit. But she said: “I was adamant I wasn’t going anywhere without my baby.”
Her nearest MBU was 30 miles away in Nottingham, as the Leicester one had been shut down.
Zebunisa is now working on a campaign to raise awareness of postpartum psychosis among ethnic minority communities.
She said: “There need to be more MBUS. Having one on the doorstep would have aided my recovery.”
It was terrifying… I didn’t trust anyone
NEW mum Gina Nagy was admitted to a psychiatric hospital three weeks after giving birth to son Rayan, now five, by emergency C-section.
Gina, 43, said: “I was terrified.
There were people walking around screaming.
“I didn’t trust anyone and refused to sleep, eat or take medication.”
After four days on the psychiatric ward, Gina, who was living in
Sutton, South
London, was moved to a MBU in nearby
Beckenham, where she stayed for nine weeks.
She said: “The environment was so different. I started to trust people again and take my medication. I had my baby with me. There was structure and systems in place, and specialists to help me.”
Gina, who has since moved to Kirkcaldy, Fife, would like a second child but fears she would not get a spot in an MBU if she relapsed. Scotland has just two units, in Edinburgh and Glasgow.