When Nia Foulkes became pregnant she knew she would have to take extra care. As someone who has bipolar she was left fearing if the pregnancy would have an effect on her mental health.
But there was little that could prepare her for what happened after her longed-for son was delivered. A series of events meant the careful preparations made to ensure she would remain well fell apart.
And within weeks the new mum found she was so unwell she could not look after her baby boy. In fact she can remember little of those early times with him, reports according to North Wales Live.
Nia, from Ruthin, Wales is now sharing those experiences to help other mums in a similar position. She told how she and her husband Tommy were delighted to discover she was pregnant in 2019 after previously being told it might not be possible for them to conceive.
However, the joy of discovering Nia was pregnant also came with uncertainty for the couple, as they were unsure how it would impact Nia's mental health. The 41-year-old was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2012, and admits that although she felt "positive", she wondered how the pregnancy would affect her.
She said: "When I became pregnant, I knew I’d need to look after my mental health carefully because I have bipolar. I was referred to the perinatal mental health team when I began planning to get pregnant and, with the support of the team, came up with a safety plan that would help me through my pregnancy and my son’s arrival in terms of my mental health and wellbeing.
"Part of this included a private room for me in the hospital after having my baby so I could get enough sleep because lack of sleep is a major trigger for my bipolar. I felt positive through my pregnancy and was reassured that I had plans in place to support me through any issues, with health professionals who knew my needs."
The couple's son Gwilym was safely delivered via C-section in May 2019, but this meant Nia had to come off her medication so she could be sedated. She said: "I was aware of all of this and that my son would be delivered by a caesarean due to a risk of me losing sleep through natural labour and triggering my bipolar.
"But it was a shock when I had to have sedation and this disrupted my medication. This was followed by more unexpected changes, like my son being rushed to special care, followed soon after by me finding out the private room that had been saved for me had been allocated to someone else while I was visiting my son in his ward."
Moved into the main ward with other mums, Nia says she missed out on sleep and began to deteriorate very quickly. Nia had become catatonic, unable to communicate or take care of her newborn son.
She said: "I don’t remember much from that point onwards. When I next became aware of where I was, I had been moved to a Mother and Baby Unit in Manchester. I’d been catatonic and continued to be very unwell for three to four weeks.
"The Manchester Mother and Baby Unit were fantastic – when my son was able to join me in the unit they supported me with caring for him so I could sleep and recover, and I feel so lucky that the time apart didn’t impact my bond with him. Bonding with him actually helped me recover.
"The care was excellent; I just wish it was closer to home. My baby wasn’t able to join me straight away and I was miles and miles from my family and friends. My partner drove to visit me for hours every day. When I’m unwell, I speak in Welsh and no one at the unit spoke Welsh language.
"It was isolating and made communication difficult. My husband had been caring for our baby, so once our son joined me in the unit he had to say goodbye to both of us which must have been so hard for him."
Three years on, Nia has shared her story to support the NSPCC's Fight for a Fair Start campaign, calling for an accessible Mother and Baby Unit (MBU) in North Wales. Currently, the only MBU in Wales is located in Tonna Hospital, Swansea.
Nia said: "The journey between our home and the unit was so long that the separation was all the more emphasised. I had my son in late 2019 and the way things were with Covid-19 a year later made me even more determined to push for change to help other families in a situation like mine.
"If my husband and friends hadn’t been able to visit me during my time in the Mother and Baby Unit I honestly don’t know how I would have coped. The complication added by the distance parents have to travel to receive vital care has been emphasised by the lockdowns and restrictions.
"People often become unwell with their mental health when they’re pregnant or after they give birth. Mums might have to move away from family for months if they need the support of a Mother and Baby Unit and when mums in North Wales are having to travel so far to get this support that experience is all the more difficult, logistically and in terms of the toll it takes emotionally to be separated from your loved ones.
"I’m pleased to say that we’re doing really well as a family now and are feeling stronger than ever. Now that my own situation is stable, I’m determined to fight for other parents so that others don’t have the experience I did."
A spokesperson said: “The NSPCC’s Fight for a Fair Start campaign is calling for an accessible MBU for all mums needing specialist inpatient care. We want to ensure that there is an accessible MBU established for families from North Wales, and that the interim MBU in South Wales is made permanent.
"While we welcome the Welsh Government’s commitment to ensuring that MBU provision is made available for mothers who live in North Wales, we are concerned that this is taking too long to establish. We would like to see concrete plans and a clear timeline for the development of this vital service for families from North Wales.”
A Welsh Government spokesperson said: “We are committed to ensuring that mother and baby unit provision is made available for mothers who live in North Wales and are working with the Welsh Health Specialised Services Committee and Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board in order to develop this service.”
For more stories from where you live, visit InYourArea.
