Treating mum's bums

Less than Six months after the Observer asked for volunteers, a local post-natal and ante-natal depression support group called POSIE has held its inaugural meeting.

In February this year the Observer ran an article looking for volunteers for a local post-natal and ante-natal depression support group called POSIE. Less than six months later, POSIE has held its inaugural meeting.

During the anxiety of her third pregnancy, POSIE creator and president Carolyn Gibbs made a conscious decision. "I decided I wouldn't complain about the lack of community based support for PND, that I would no longer be a victim of my mental illness, and that I would resume control of my life, my brain and my self-esteem."

Gibbs says she "suffered in silence" with her first child and saw a psychiatrist for ante-natal depression during her second pregnancy. She was then treated for PND with cognitive behaviour therapy.

"POSIE is a community-based support group for families in the Hornsby area that are experiencing ante-natal or post-natal depression who need support, information, outreach and education in order to deal better with these conditions.

"The philosophy of the group is to help people help themselves," says Gibbs.

Beyondblue, a national organisation working to address issues associated with depression and anxiety disorders, says post-natal depression affects one in seven women giving birth in Australia. The birth rate in the Hornsby area is around 2000 per year which means roughly 286 women in the area potentially suffer from PND at any one time. That's a lot of women suffering without adequate support services.

Gibbs says that services in the Hornsby area "are difficult to find and access unless you know the system or have plenty of money to see private practitioners."

Social workers, midwives and nurses involved in giving advice and information to mothers of young children based at Hornsby Ku-ring-gai Hospital suggested to Gibbs that a strong need existed "for a community based support group service targeting mothers with perinatal mood disorders."

POSIE is a volunteer, not-for-profit group auspiced by the Schizophrenia Fellowship of NSW. Hornsby RSL has recently allocated the group a grant, while funding applications through Hornsby and Ku-ring-gai Councils are still pending.

Gibbs anticipates at least 80 women per year could be referred to POSIE by health services provided by Hornsby Ku-ring-gai Hospital, local council and early childhood nurses at local chemists. Three trained facilitators will be present at all POSIE meetings - two to guide the group and one to identify those who may be 'at risk'.

While every other state in Australia has a PND support group, there is no community based support group in NSW, let alone Sydney. It is Gibbs' aim that POSIE become state-wide by 2010.

Gibbs says many women feel they've failed as a mother if they experience PND. "The reality is that today's society, families are often made up of two working parents with financial obligations and pressures unlike those experienced even 15 years ago and who tend to live away from family supports.  Women are tending to have their children at an older age in order to establish a career."

The stigma commonly attached to women who are not happy following the birth of their child, who feel they are not coping with the demands of motherhood, or who do not instantly bond with, and love their baby.

has not been helped by the comments of a certain film star that anti-depressants "mask the problem" of PND.

Gibbs says, "I personally believe that using anti-depressants, in combination with counselling and creation of an extensive community support system, are a useful tool in combating the chemical imbalance in the brain which creates depression." Plus, "personally I think anyone who subscribes to a religion that was created as a dare by L. Ron Hubbard lacks credibility."

POSIE's next meeting will be held on August 10 from 10am until 12 noon at Waitara Uniting Church and again on August 25. Babysitting facilities will be provided.

For more information contact Carolyn Gibbs on 9489 0912 or go to www.posie.org.au or email babysitting@posie.org.au