I had a baby on Prozac: One Irish woman tells her story

'After my first baby, I became very depressed. I was constantly worried and anxious about everything. Was my baby healthy? Was she feeding well? Was I a good mother?

My own mother died when I was young, so I didn't have a lot of support. I was absolutely exhausted and afraid to tell anyone how bad I was feeling. One day, when the baby was five months old, I visited the GP because I was worried about the baby, and I burst into tears. My GP was the first person who asked me how I was really feeling and he didn't seem shocked when I told him that I actually felt suicidal. He asked me to come talk to him once a week, for a while, and gave me a prescription for Prozac, which I was afraid to take at first. I thought it would make me a bad person.

My husband reacted badly, like I was a mental patient or something. I went back to my GP and talked to him again, and he explained that I would be a better mother, not a worse one, if I was feeling happier in myself. I took the Prozac. It made all the difference. Before becoming pregnant again, I gradually came off the Prozac. But when my second baby was eight weeks old, I knew I needed to start taking it again, so I did. The second depression wasn't as bad, because I was less afraid of it, and knew that there was medication to help me."