'A Lifeline' For Doctors Helps Them Treat Postpartum Depression
As a young woman, Jennifer Ford struggled with anxiety and depression. When she got pregnant, her physician advised her to stay on the antidepressant she took to manage her symptoms.
Her first pregnancy and childbirth went smoothly, she says, but things were different after she gave birth the second time. "It's when I hit my wall," says Ford.
She remembers feeling overcome by grief, immediately after she got home.
"I couldn't even communicate a full sentence about how I was feeling," recalls Ford. "All I could do was cry."
She couldn't eat, sleep, or take care of her newborn.
One afternoon, she was in her bedroom trying to take a nap, but couldn't fall asleep — she felt overwhelmed by her emotions. "I wanted to take all of my pain meds and go to bed," she says. She wanted to put an end to her suffering.
But instead, she went into the kitchen where her husband was, and told him how she felt. "That was when he was like 'OK, obviously something needs to change here. We're going to get help. And we're going to get it now."
Her husband made an appointment with her OB-GYN, Dr. Christopher Conlan.
"She came in and I could immediately see in
