Overcome Postnatal Depression, with Natural Support When You're Struggling to Cope

Episode 5: Depression and Postnatal Depression: Natural Support

1 in 5 adults in the UK will experience depression or mental illness in their lifetime. For new mums, 30% suffer from postnatal depression – yet 49% don't seek help.

Depression and postnatal depression (PND) are real illnesses that need proper support. If you're struggling right now, this episode is for you.

What you'll learn:

• Symptoms of depression (physical, mental, and emotional)
• Symptoms specific to postnatal depression
• Why PND is so misunderstood 
• My personal experience with PND after both my daughters

Conventional treatment options:

• Antidepressants - when they can help and their side effects
• Talking therapy (counselling, CBT) – and the reality of NHS waiting lists
• How complementary therapies can support you while you wait for help

Natural support for depression and PND:

• Homeopathic remedies such as Aurum met, Nat mur, Sepia, Cimicifuga, and Anacardium
• Breathing techniques and EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique)
• Supplements that support mental health (especially postpartum)

Nutritional support:

• Multivitamin, selenium, zinc, calcium, magnesium, vitamins E, C, B6
• Placental encapsulation (why it works and how to access it)

Other support:

• Bach Flower Hornbeam for SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder)
• The importance of community and connection
• Spiritual practices 

Mental health charity mentioned: MIND (www.mind.org.uk)

Perfect for: Anyone struggling with depression, postnatal depression, or supporting someone who is.

Transcript

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Hello and welcome to the Homeopath in Your Pocket, where I help busy working mums discover how to support their family's health with confidence. Hi, I'm your host, Neela Prabhu, a licensed homeopath with 20 years of experience as a pharmacist. As a mum of two girls, I totally understand the juggle of family life firsthand. Each week, I'll share practical, actionable tips that you can use today to support your family's well-being. So let's get started. Natural support for postnatal depression and mental health. So, mental health is quite the hot topic nowadays, and rightly so. We need to talk about it more, not less. So let's start with some facts. One in five UK adults suffer from depression or mental health illness in their lifetime. And women are twice as likely to suffer than men. The average depressive episode lasts from six to eight months. Postnatal depression is very close to my heart as I've suffered twice. 30% of new mums suffer, and 49% don't seek help. Half the cause is thought to be through isolation. 22% had suicidal thoughts, and 40% experienced traumatic birth. Those stats are really quite sobering. So if you're struggling right now, please know that you're not alone. So what are the symptoms of depression? It's important to recognize what you're dealing with and how it may be different from anxiety, stress, or panic attacks. So depression causes no motivation or interest in things. It's a continuous low mood. It's a feeling of sadness, hopelessness, and helplessness. You may feel anxious or worried. You might be feeling very tearful, you have changes in your appetite, either eating very little or eating a lot. You might be experiencing fatigue, sleep disturbances, restlessness, digestive issues, and difficulty concentrating. The reality is depression is not just feeling a bit sad. It's a persistent heavy blanket that smothers the ability to function and enjoy life. It affects your body, mind, relationships, and everything. So what are the symptoms of postnatal depression? Postnatal depression often includes many of the symptoms above, but specifically there are some extra ones for the postpartum period. Feeling like you can't cope, not being able to enjoy anything, not being interested in your new baby. That last one is particularly hard. There's so much shame around not feeling connected to your baby. You're supposed to be overjoyed, aren't you? You're supposed to be glowing with maternal love and almost an instantaneous connection to your baby. And PND robs you of that. It makes you feel numb, detached, and even resentful. But it doesn't make you a bad mother. It makes you unwell. And that is a quite a big distinction to make. So what does conventional treatment offer us? Conventional medicine readily prescribes antidepressants such as SSRIs, so fluoxetine or sertraline. And these can be helpful for some absolutely, but they're not the only option, and they also come with their own side effects. Talking therapy such as counselling or CBT, which is cognitive behavioral therapy, is also recommended, which can be very helpful. Unfortunately, the NHS waiting lists are extremely long and demand outweighs resources. So you might be waiting months when you actually need the help now. And this is where complementary therapies like homeopathy, breathing techniques, EFT tapping can really help support you. So my top three remedies for depression are Aura Met, NAPMUR, and sepia, and my top three for postnatal depression are sepia, simak, and anacardium. Breathing techniques and EFT tapping are also extremely helpful, and I'm going to leave an EFT demonstration video on the link in the show notes. It's free, it's simple, and you can do it anywhere. EFT stands for Emotional Freedom Technique. There are some supplements for postnatal depression because I believe that nutrition plays a huge role here. So especially postpartum when your body is depleted from going through the pregnancy and labour and birth and it's trying to recover. And you may also be breastfeeding at this time. So if you're breastfeeding specific pregnancy breastfeeding tablets with omega-3, so something like pregna care is really helpful for you and it's specifically formulated to support you and the baby. If you're not breastfeeding, good quality multivitamin mineral, selenium, zinc, calcium, magnesium, 400 to 600 IU of vitamin E every day, one gram of vitamin C daily, vitamin B6, all of these things help to support your nervous system, mood, energy levels, and hormonal balance. So it's not a cure, but it can make a real difference. Placental encapsulation is also something that I would highly recommend. So your placenta, the organ that has supported your baby throughout the entire pregnancy, is dried and put into oral capsules for the new mum to consume. And animal mammals have been doing this since the dawn of time. They've given birth to their live infant, and the animal will then eat their placenta once that has also been birthed. So your placenta is packed with hormones, iron, nutrients that have supported your baby throughout your pregnancy, and it helps to prevent or ease postnatal depression. It sounds unusual, but there is evidence and anecdotal reports that are really compelling. If you suffer with SAD, that's seasonal affective disorder, backflower remedy hornbeam can be very effective here. If you're suffering with a sense of loss of connection, having a sense of connection with others in community is very important, and isolation is one of the main causes of postnatal depression. A mother and baby group, an online community, regular coffee dates, all of these things are really important as connection matters. A spiritual connection, which is not necessarily religious, can also be very comforting and act as an anchor during these times. Meditation, breathing exercises, moon journaling, and gratitude diaries. These practices all help to ground you and give you something to hold on to when everything feels dark and you're adrift. So, my personal experience. So homeopathy was of great help to me during my second bout of postnatal. And I've shared my story in episode one of this podcast. If you want to hear more, I'll pop the link in the show notes below. Winston Churchill suffered from depression, and he famously called it his black dog. He lived with it his whole life, but he also achieved extraordinary things. Depression doesn't define you, it's something you're going through, not something you are, and you don't need to suffer or put a brave face on anymore. I'm always here to listen and help if I can. My door is always open and my kettle is always on. So what are the action steps that you can take right here, right now, to help you? So step one, reach out for support. Talk to your GP, a counsellor, a trusted friend. Visit the mental health charity Mind, which has brilliant resources online and support services. I'll put a link in the show notes below. You don't have to do this alone. Step two, support your body with nutrition. Start taking supplements, and if you're breastfeeding, get the relevant supplements for that. If not, start with a good multivitamin and add omega-3. The body needs these nutrients to function properly, especially postpartum when your body is recovering. And step three, try homeopathy and other holistic support. If you're wanting some chronic one-to-one help for depression or postnatal, book a free discovery call with me, and we can get to the root cause of what is going on for you. Give you some constitutional treatment which can make a profound difference to your mental health. Try the EFT tapping technique, and I'm going to leave a link to the video in the show notes. And Backflower Remedies, Hornbeam for SAD, or the custom blends, which again I will leave a link for in the show notes, can be incredibly supportive. So let's wrap up. One in five UK adults experience depression at some point in their lifetime. 30% of new mums suffer from postnatal, and half don't seek help at all. Symptoms of depression include low mood, hopelessness, tearfulness, fatigue, and difficulty concentrating. Postnatal includes all of those and feeling like you can't cope and are not interested in your baby. Conventional treatment gives you antidepressants and perhaps some talking therapy if you're willing to wait the very long waiting list. Your natural options are homeopathy, supplements, placental encapsulation, EFT, breathing techniques, finding community connection so that you are then supported through your depression and your postnatal. You don't have to suffer in silence, and help is available, and you deserve to feel better. Thanks for listening to today's episode. If you found this helpful, I'd be so grateful if you could leave a review as it helps other busy mums discover the show. If you want to dive deeper, book a free discovery call to see how we can work together one-to-one, or join me on Instagram at Homeopathic Harmony, where we can continue the conversation. And don't forget to grab your free guide to beating insomnia when you join my email list because I know sleep is precious when you're juggling everything else. The links are in the show notes. I'll see you next week.