Dad pushes to raise postnatal depression awareness

Florence recently celebrated her third birthday and her father said he was keen to raise awareness about PND and became a volunteer for PANDAS.

He wanted to encourage new dads to reach out and seek support if they were struggling with their mental health following the birth of their child and they shouldn’t be ashamed of it.

Another father who can sympathise with Steve is Dan Rowe, who runs the Whitchurch branch of Andy’s Man Club in Shropshire, a men’s suicide prevention charity.

His son, now 10, became ill after he was born, and Rowe suffered from postnatal depression himself afterwards – something he said he did not realise could happen.

“Going into being a dad I was very excited… at no point did I ever consider he would be ill when he was born,” he said.

“That hit me like a ton of bricks… I didn’t know where to turn, I didn’t even understand why I was feeling what I was feeling.”

He said it felt “all-encompassing” and led to him attempting suicide a number of times in the first two years of his son’s life.

“I was later diagnosed with postnatal depression as a dad – which I didn’t think was a thing,” Rowe said.

Walking through the door of Andy’s Man Club helped him speak up, he said, as well as attending counselling.