Rushden mum hoping to help more women with postnatal depression

Mum-of-two Vicky Sweeney of Rushden recently held a ‘Pamper Your Mind’ event to raise awareness of both pre and postnatal depression.

More than 10 businesses supported the event held at Rush2TheDen in Fitzwilliam Street and gave their services for free to the mums.

Some NHS staff and a personal trainer were also there to offer support.

Vicky’s own experience with postnatal depression prompted her to try and do something to help others by organising the free event.

She suffered with anxiety and panic attacks for more than 10 years and it came to a head after the birth of her second child.

It was only when she came across a blog by a mum dealing with anxiety that she started to admit something was wrong.

After getting help, Vicky has now overcome her illness but she said the experience made her realise that it is still a taboo subject and there should be more help available to women.

Following the success of her first event, she is now keen to keep going and do more.

Vicky said: “The feedback was fantastic and has proved how much more needs to be done for pre and postnatal depression.

“I have decided to do the event more often, potentially every three months as well as set up an online support community.

“There were numerous mums who commented on how valuable they found the day and got some emotional support that was well needed so the event was 100 per cent worth it.”

Feedback from the event has been very positive from those who attended.

One lady who went along said: “It was so nice to get together with such a lovely bunch of people, and well done Vicky for organising such an event.

“This community so needed something like this and so many women out there are needing or have needed people to talk or share their experiences with.

“A huge success and thank you for giving me the opportunity to be part of it.”

Another woman praised the passion and care that Vicky put into organising the event and added: “So glad to hear you’ll be doing this again, what an achievement.”