PNI-UK:
Who we are and What we Do
PNI-UK is a Registered Charity set up to help and support women and their families affected by postnatal illness. We wanted an organisation which could offer women and their families the information and support they need to help them recover.
Postnatal illness affects not just the woman concerned, but her husband/partner and any other children in the family. Its effects are also felt by the wider family and friends of the women concerned. Following a lot of research and enquiries in to postnatal depression/illness, Birth trauma, Puerperal psychosis etc, PNI-UK was started.
We are now in our second year with our new website which is in addition to our support group and other services which will be published shortly. PNI-UK is an independent organisation which is registered as a stakeholder organisation with NICE, the National Institute for Clinical Excellence, run by the Department of Health. This means we as an organisation have a say in the development of clinical guidelines for Antenatal and Postnatal Mental Health.
It is our Trustees and Management committee who make the organisation run so smoothly, but above all run independently of the health service. We are here to highlight and campaign for:
- Improvements in the quality of the care you receive when you have any type of antenatal or postnatal mental or emotional health issue.
- All women to be given information about PNI and Birth Trauma organisations as a matter of course, during antenatal clinic check-ups with the Midwife and postnatally again from your Midwife.
- Women to have access to the services of a Perinatal Mental Health Specialist and their appropriately trained team, along with a thorough medical examination which is given not just at six weeks, but at three months and six months postnatally.
Our Commitment to You
PNI-UK.com has been set up with professional information and researched articles for you to read and print off. Our Message Board is there for you to say what you want, how you feel and to ask any questions you feel you need answers to.
We treat your views with respect, and we are there for you. Our site is monitored to remove any offensive material or advertisements. Support and information is there to help you recover and be set free of this illness, not to keep you 'locked in' and dependant on us. Use this site as often as you need to.
You may find at first you can't keep away from it! But this is a natural reaction to finding a site where your views are respected and answered in an informative and caring manner. This is a site for you have a say about how you truly feel. As your recovery increases you will need the site less and less - and this is ok too.
Our aim is to help you recover, not keep you in your illness or trauma, and not to ask anything of you.
Anything we offer at PNI-UK and the website is given unconditionally.
With regard to how we run the charity, we don't believe in 'pairing-up' ill women with one another. We feel it isn't helpful to the women concerned as it can cause more stress and we believe added stress impairs your ability to recover.
Women with postnatal illness or Birth Trauma need recovered women to help them.
Fathers too need this help, so the fathers who you have contact with have had a wife or partner who has recovered from postnatal illness or Birth Trauma.
We place a lot of emphasis on 'recovered' because when you are postnatally ill, you need all your emotional energy to deal with all that life gives you. Your energy is taken up with caring for your children, husband and family.
At PNI-UK, we don't ask women with postnatal illness or Birth Trauma to offer emotional support via E-mail, Real-time Help Service or Telephone.
It is too much for a woman with PNI to support another in this situation.
By using the message board, parents affected by postnatal illness issues can give some help and advice to each other.
When you have postnatal illness you lose all your ability to trust your own judgement and to rationalise a given situation.
You lose the ability to be objective about certain aspects of your life, and you rely on someone to guide you through the emotional 'up's and down's' of this illness.
You may find your moods 'swing' more when you admit to having postnatal illness and haven't yet spoken to your GP about medication. If you have started medication, or you are stable on medication and start any type of professional counselling, clinical psychotherapy, or trauma therapy, you may find your moods become a little more 'up and down' again because you are talking through painful, emotional issues in your life.
Women with postnatal illness have the emotional development of their baby (and for some, other children to be responsible for) which is another reason you need all the emotional stability, support and rest you can get in order to care for your children effectively.
You cannot do this and support another ill woman.
Please read through our website and see which parts apply to your situation.
We will soon have information about the emotional development of babies and children whose mothers are affected by PNI.
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