A: Within a few days of the birth, I felt fine. And then I just felt a cloud kind of descending, probably within 3 weeks of birth. I had a sense of losing who I was; I just didn't know who I was anymore. I didn’t recognize myself.

A: I don't recall them bringing it up, asking me specific questions about how I was doing emotionally. I think people just assumed that I was coping well because I would be there and I would make the appointments and follow through.

A: I think, in my mind, I didn’t connect that anger I was feeling and that irritation with depression; I didn’t realize that it was a symptom of depression.

A: I guess initially some books that I had around the house on parenting and then I went online; I did some Internet research at the library. As I read more about it, I realized that I fit those criteria and I just needed some help.

A: Everyday activities were just really hard to get accomplished, things like washing the dishes. I also was very easily irritated by things I wouldn't normally get bothered by. Little tiny things that kids do everyday I just couldn't cope with.

A: I was just looking in the newspaper and saw a little questionnaire: Are you depressed? Did you recently have a baby? And I called that number. It was a good 3 months, though, after the birth. I wasn't getting better and I just realized that I needed some help.

A: I just felt numb and sad. I would be awake in the middle of the night; I would wake up and be wide awake lying in bed, all of these things running through my mind. I felt worthless; I felt like a failure.

A: I think a sense of relief that it wasn’t me…that it wasn't that I was a failure, it was something biological, something happening and that it was something normal. And that I could get help.

A: I could take care of her needs; I could feed her, dress her, I could do all that, but it was like I didn’t really connect to her. I saw her more as like an inanimate object.

A: When I learned I had depression, I didn't really feel stigmatized by it. In fact, I think it helped me to know that.

A: I felt a distance from everyone, almost like I didn’t feel any love towards any of my children at all; I just kind of lost that emotional connection to them.

A: I'm not sure that I made a conscious choice. It was help and I was willing to take whatever help was offered. And it was explained to me that if this wasn't working, other help would be offered to me.

A: I could put on a face when we would go in public. I don't think people really knew, but at home, certainly my husband could see that things weren't normal.

A: Within a few weeks, I was starting to feel like I was coming back to myself. It was like things started becoming less cloudy, less foggy. I would say within 6 weeks I was feeling pretty close to being normal again.

A: I think I was the kind of person who wanted everything to look normal from the outside, so I didn’t confide in my obstetrician when I started feeling bad. I kind of wanted to be the perfect patient.

A: I know now -- my life, it’s not perfect; I didn’t become the perfect homemaker or the perfect wife, the perfect mother, but I feel like I’m back to being myself again. And I’m having a happy life.