[arista]

this is so sad.

Charlotte Bevan was filmed on CCTV leaving Bristol Maternity Hospital


The 30-year-old had been suffering from mental health problems




so tragic


http://news.sky.com/story/1385794/bo...found-in-gorge

[T*]

Aw no
PND i'm assuming? </3

[Kazanne]

Just been talking about this,very sad,what can you say,just awful.

[LeatherTrumpet]

was it depression?

[arista]

Originally Posted by Scrooge

was it depression?

I do not think so.



she walked from the hospital to the bridge

[Josy]

This is so sad was just reading about her earlier. R.I.P to both of them.

[joeysteele]

Really sad news, tragic.

[Ammi]

..this is so very tragic...just devastating for her family and friends...

[AnnieK]

Originally Posted by arista

I do not think so.



she walked from the hospital to the bridge

I read that she had stopped taking her medication for depression so she could breast feed. from the article

Sky's Siobhan Robbins said one line of enquiry is focusing on the possibility that Ms Bevan may have stopped taking medication for the mental illness because she was breastfeeding.

Ms Bevan is believed to have been suffering from schizophrenia and depression and had been sleep deprived after giving birth.

Very tragic for all concerned....RIP

[thesheriff443]

sad and selfish , like anyone that takes their only life and the life of their innocent child or children.

should of been more safe guarding in place.

[Nedusa]

If they knew she was on medication for mental health issues then when she came off those drugs during pregnancy, surely somebody must have realised her state of mind after she gave birth would be seriously suspect.

And if that was the case surely much higher security measures should have been in place to protect her child and her from her own unbalanced actions.

How she could just walk out of hospital with her new born baby without any shoes on is shameful.

Very sad story for all concerned.



.

[AnnieK]

Originally Posted by Nedusa

If they knew she was on medication for mental health issues then when she came off those drugs during pregnancy, surely somebody must have realised her state of mind after she gave birth would be seriously suspect.

And if that was the case surely much higher security measures should have been in place to protect her child and her from her own unbalanced actions.

How she could just walk out of hospital with her new born baby without any shoes on is shameful.

Very sad story for all concerned.



.

The security is terrible. When I had my son, you couldn't get off the maternity ward without a nurse letting you out. The babies all had mini electronic tags and the doors were locked.

[Cherie]

Originally Posted by Nedusa

If they knew she was on medication for mental health issues then when she came off those drugs during pregnancy, surely somebody must have realised her state of mind after she gave birth would be seriously suspect.

And if that was the case surely much higher security measures should have been in place to protect her child and her from her own unbalanced actions.

How she could just walk out of hospital with her new born baby without any shoes on is shameful.

Very sad story for all concerned.




.

The problem is if she was that much of a risk to her child she could never be left with the baby, whoever sanctioned her coming off her medication, the decision to breast feed, so many ifs and buts. Tragic for all concerned.

[Toy Soldier]

You can safely breastfeed on antidepressants so I'm not sure why she would have had to come off of them, but anyway, if she was indeed schizophrenic, this sounds a lot like a psychotic episode which would have been triggered by being off of antipsychotics (she may have had to come off them in pregnancy) or even just because of the surge of hormones that follows giving birth, which can render these medications ineffective even if they're not stopped. Dosages and varieties of these drugs are a fine balancing act and that hormonal change means a completely different balance needs to be found.

If she was diagnosed schizophrenic then I feel that psychological issues post birth, drugs or no drugs, we're all but inevitable and as such, someone somewhere (doctors, other hospital staff, even her family) have made a massive oversight by not ensuring that someone was with her at all times after the birth.

[Kizzy]

Originally Posted by Toy Soldier

You can safely breastfeed on antidepressants so I'm not sure why she would have had to come off of them, but anyway, if she was indeed schizophrenic, this sounds a lot like a psychotic episode which would have been triggered by being off of antipsychotics (she may have had to come off them in pregnancy) or even just because of the surge of hormones that follows giving birth, which can render these medications ineffective even if they're not stopped. Dosages and varieties of these drugs are a fine balancing act and that hormonal change means a completely different balance needs to be found.

If she was diagnosed schizophrenic then I feel that psychological issues post birth, drugs or no drugs, we're all but inevitable and as such, someone somewhere (doctors, other hospital staff, even her family) have made a massive oversight by not ensuring that someone was with her at all times after the birth.

That depends entirely on what you take, if she had schizophrenia she may have been on anti psychotics, I doubt these would be compatible with breastfeeding. That said I'm really surprised the benefit of breastfeeding outweighed her remaining medicated.
I just hope this doesn't impact negatively on the staff on the wards, if she required 24hr care this should've been factored in before she arrived at hospital.

[Nedusa]

I'm sorry........have I missed something here ?

She came off her medication so she could breastfeed.... but her medication kept her sane or certainly kept severe depression at bay.

So after Pregnancy when nearly all mothers suffer from some degree of PND a decision was taken to allow a woman who actually suffers from serious depression to come off her medication so she can breastfeed.

Can anyone else see the absolute lunacy in that decison.

She could have bottle fed and stayed on her medication even increased it due to the natural threat of PND.

But to come off it totally is well...just ridiculous

I think certain people now will have to live with the knowledge that they were partly to blame for agreeing to such a stupid decision which has tragically resulted in the deaths of both Mother and Baby.

Heartbreaking...................





.

[Toy Soldier]

Don't think anyone bothered to read my post. You can breastfeed on most modern antidepressants, and antipsychotics are likely to have had to have been stopped in pregnancy (breastfeeding irrelevant). I suspect that aspect may have been misreported.

Regardless, as a diagnosed schizophrenic off of her antipsychotics she should have been monitored.

Also worth noting, Nedusa, is that you use "allowed" and the presumption that other people or medical staff would be to blame for that. She wasn't sectioned or a criminal, she had prescription meds and was (rightly! Let's not start advocating forced medication!) free to make the decision to discontinue them. Obviously that was a huge mistake, but it wasn't necessarily OK'd by a doctor. A doctor is only there to advise, permission is not required to discontinue any medical treatment, unless there has been legal intervention on the grounds that the patient isn't capable of making a decision.

[arista]

Originally Posted by AnnieK

I read that she had stopped taking her medication for depression so she could breast feed. from the article

Sky's Siobhan Robbins said one line of enquiry is focusing on the possibility that Ms Bevan may have stopped taking medication for the mental illness because she was breastfeeding.

Ms Bevan is believed to have been suffering from schizophrenia and depression and had been sleep deprived after giving birth.

Very tragic for all concerned....RIP

Yes
maybe the hospital did not know everything
she walked in slippers to jump from that bridge
the baby just 4 days old
so sad

[Nedusa]

Originally Posted by Toy Soldier

Don't think anyone bothered to read my post. You can breastfeed on most modern antidepressants, and antipsychotics are likely to have had to have been stopped in pregnancy (breastfeeding irrelevant). I suspect that aspect may have been misreported.

Regardless, as a diagnosed schizophrenic off of her antipsychotics she should have been monitored.

Also worth noting, Nedusa, is that you use "allowed" and the presumption that other people or medical staff would be to blame for that. She wasn't sectioned or a criminal, she had prescription meds and was (rightly! Let's not start advocating forced medication!) free to make the decision to discontinue them. Obviously that was a huge mistake, but it wasn't necessarily OK'd by a doctor. A doctor is only there to advise, permission is not required to discontinue any medical treatment, unless there has been legal intervention on the grounds that the patient isn't capable of making a decision.

Yes........I fear you are quite correct in that she had the "right" not to take these prescribed drugs. But people close to her should perhaps have been monitoring her far more closely during this whole period and the Doctors should have been wary to the possibility that she could have stopped her meds and might give cause for monitoring especially as she had given birth and the baby needed to have the full protection from all parties given this woman's circumstances.

Can't help thinking this woman has been let down by a variety of groups.



.

[kirklancaster]

Originally Posted by Nedusa

If they knew she was on medication for mental health issues then when she came off those drugs during pregnancy, surely somebody must have realised her state of mind after she gave birth would be seriously suspect.

And if that was the case surely much higher security measures should have been in place to protect her child and her from her own unbalanced actions.

How she could just walk out of hospital with her new born baby without any shoes on is shameful.

Very sad story for all concerned.
.

These are exactly my thoughts.

[Cherie]

I wonder if this poor woman got the hard sell to breast feed.

[Toy Soldier]

Even if they did know, the sad truth is that maternity services are stretched to breaking point in the NHS and standards of care are really suffering. There should really be one midwife to each woman, or at least between two women, during labour but sometimes it's more like one between 4 or 5. Even worse in the ward afterwards, last time in my wife could barely walk after the birth, our daughter was in neonatal a 5 minute walk across the hospital and she was supposed to be taken in a wheelchair for feeds, but lack of staff meant she just had to drag herself there in agony. Plus she could buzz endlessly needing water etc, no one would ever come... Again just had to drag herself out to the water cooler when she wasn't supposed to be walking at all. The standards of care are abysmal given that it's the time when people (mums and babies!) are most vulnerable. But it's not the staff's fault... They can only do so much when they're understaffed like that.

I do still think that this, beyond the above, is a special case and really she should have had a mental health nurse to support her.

[Toy Soldier]

Originally Posted by Cherie

I wonder if this poor woman got the hard sell to breast feed.

This case almost certainly has nothing at all to do with breastfeeding and, frankly, the fact that the corporate-sponsored mainstream press have used the death of an ill woman and a newborn baby to take a "subtle" pro-formula pop is more than sickening.

[Cherie]

Originally Posted by Toy Soldier

This case almost certainly has nothing at all to do with breastfeeding and, frankly, the fact that the corporate-sponsored mainstream press have used the death of an ill woman and a newborn baby to take a "subtle" pro-formula pop is more than sickening.

You can't know that, I've not read anything about this apart from what I have seen on this forum but I do know at first hand the pressure that is put on new mothers to breast feed and this MAY be a contributory factor.

[Toy Soldier]

Originally Posted by Cherie

You can't know that, I've not read anything about this apart from what I have seen on this forum but I do know at first hand the pressure that is put on new mothers to breast feed and this MAY be a contributory factor.

That's the point though, isn't it? The newspaper can't know that it was a factor and yet they chose to add that completely needless information into the article. Why? It's more probable that it had absolutely nothing to do with it? The answer is that mainstream media outlets will insert these little "nudges" (on all sorts of issues) into any story they can, and when the story is one as tragic as this, that is a foul thing to do.