Hello!

11 Comments

A mum has told of her terrifying experience suffering from post-partum psychosis.

Kelly Clarke, 31, gave birth to her baby, Taylon, in February by planned c-section at Leighton Hospital, UK, but a week later was back in hospital for a second op to fix the incision.

The mum-of-four had been plagued by agonising stomach pains and claims she went back to the hospital three times to raise concerns.

But she was horrified when she felt something wet and warm coming out of the incision – and realised it was a part of her intestines, shares Yahoo 7.

“I went to the hospital three times after my planned c-section begging for help because something didn’t feel right in my stomach,” she said.

Kelly was rushed to hospital and emergency surgery was carried out – but when she awoke from the anaesthetic, her life began to spiral out of control.

Her mental health began to suffer

Kelly was unsurprisingly shaken and the ordeal saw her mental state decline.

She didn’t sleep for five days, became convinced her son was dying, and phoned her family in a panic up to 60 times a day.

“Whilst Taylon was in my care I was constantly paranoid, the slightest bit of wind or sick and I thought he was choking,” she said.

“When he emptied his bowels and if it was watery I thought he was very ill and kept demanding a doctor for him.”

She was also mistakenly convinced she was in line for a $540,000 hospital payout and went on a shopping spree buying $3,500 of new clothes, trainers and electrical items.

In the grip of her illness, she even threw her family’s belongings out into the street.

Her brother Tom Skeldon, 32, and mum Denise Clarke, 53, intervened when they saw a Facebook Live video of Kelly telling the world she was dying, and begging for help.

“I was completely a different person to the woman I am, and I still didn’t believe it was me in the Facebook Live videos when I watched them back,” Kelly recalled.

“I was screaming for help in the videos and telling everyone I was dying, and I was begging for my mum and Tom to help me.

“I watched all my videos back and then deleted them from social media – I was constantly asking my family if it was actually me doing that.”

Single mum Kelly was taken to hospital by police and eventually sectioned to a secure mother and baby unit where she was treated for post-partum psychosis for two months.

Mum Denise took care of Kelly’s other children Talisha Brookshaw, 14, Tiffany Brookshaw, 12, and Theo Clarke, aged six, while brother Tom cared for her newborn.

“I’d been up half the night googling her symptoms and postpartum psychosis popped up and she was displaying all these same symptoms and behaviours,” Tom said.

“I was worried in case it was sepsis from the two major operations.

“Kelly was manic all day, talking about things that weren’t true and hallucinating so I got her to the doctors.

“But all she could tell them was that she’d had five days with no sleep.”

She was given medication to stabilise her and was released on April 30.

Now home and back with her family, brave Kelly, from Cheshire, decided to speak out to raise awareness of post-partum psychosis.

We have previously shared the story of a new mum who suffered a psychotic breakdown just days after a traumatic 64-hour labour during the birth of her first child. Read her story here.

According to the Black Dog Institute, one to two women in every thousand will suffer from psychosis after pregnancy. That amounts to between 300 and 600 women each year.

If you are struggling please contact Perinatal Anxiety and Depression (PANDA) national helpline 1300 726 306.

Share your comments below.

Read more:

We may get commissions for purchases made using links in this post. Learn more.
  • Lucky she had supper around her to get her through

    Reply

  • How terrifying! The worst thing is, it can happen to anyone. Thank goodness this lady was able to get help and treatment!

    Reply

  • It probably happens more often than you know. Feel sorry for this family

    Reply

  • So terrible hope she gets treated by professionals

    Reply

  • Tragic. Mental health is so hard to treat. I hope she is in recovery and has a lot of loving support around her.

    Reply

  • That’s awful, I hope she’s ok!

    Reply

  • How awful I am she’s doing well now.

    Reply

  • I hope she got some k8nd of payout from the hospital for not taking her seriously for so long.

    Reply

  • How traumatic. No wonder her mental health declined.

    Reply

  • That would be a nightmare to realise your intestines were leaking out of your caesarean wound. But really only the start of this poor woman’s nightmare

    Reply

  • This is scary stuff, very eye opening on the matter.

    Reply

Post a comment
Add a photo
Your MoM account


Lost your password?

Enter your email and a password below to post your comment and join MoM:

You May Like

Loading…

Looks like this may be blocked by your browser or content filtering.

↥ Back to top

Thanks For Your Star Rating!

Would you like to add a written rating or just a star rating?

Write A Rating Just A Star Rating
Join