Postnatal depletion can be an accumulative process – you conceive a baby, grow a baby, birth a baby then breastfeed, then throw in some sleep deprivation and the emotional stress of adjusting to this new role.
As a breastfeeding mother you are everything to your baby – food, comfort and nurturing. Around the clock. So how do you protect your mental health?
"I was incredibly stressed and I knew something was very wrong but I thought, I am a mum, I should be able to cope,” says Sandy, a Melbourne mother of two who was diagnosed with postnatal depression when her first baby was three months old.