My post-baby anxiety hit me like a double decker bus

Julie O’Sullivan was enjoying the early days of motherhood when she suddenly began experiencing distressing, intrusive thoughts later linked by doctors to hormonal changes after childbirth

Julie O'Sullivan with children Olivia (4), Anna (4 months)pictured at grand canal dock Co Dublin. Picture: Stephen Collins/Collins Photos

After five years of trying to conceive, Julie O’Sullivan was delighted to be pregnant with her first child in 2021 and enjoyed a normal pregnancy, excited about the prospect of becoming a mother.

But less than two weeks after her daughter Olivia was born in April 2022, she “woke up a different person”.