The Edinburgh PND Scale

I was think about this last night , one of the ways in which health professionals try to find out if we are suffering from PND or are borderline PND and how easy it is to manipulate this in our favor should we not wish to disclose this information.  I'm not saying that it isn't useful but I certainly know at least 5 people who knew what to say and which answers to pick and ended up falling under the "radar".
 
I know that these days it is difficult for health visitors, doctors, midwives ect, to spend time with us as a whole because of budget cuts or lack of staff but surely if the time was taken, our trust could be built up and we may feel more able to disclose what we feel we cant to our partners, and rest of family? Or maybe I am completely wrong. But I do remember having a conversation with my cousin who has two older children (age 11 and 8), and  she still run's into her health visitor from time to time and not only does the health visitor know their names, she also remembers their ages.  I on the other hand can't remember the last time that I saw mine and I probably wouldn't recognize her even if I was in the surgery, (my original health visitor left and is working elsewhere).

I don't want to give health visitors a bad name because not all of them are the same, nor is their work load and circumstances.  I do know that if my original health visitor was still around, he would have called from time to time especially having known what I went through at the start and this just proves the point.  This leads me to another point, are they over worked and just don't have the energy to deal with PND, or have they not got enough training?

I would really be interested in hearing about other people's experiences with their own health visitors and also , did you manipulate the scale? I know that there are people from other countries reading this and would be interested to know what you have in the way of "diagnosis" of PND/PPD? Are they as easy to manipulate? Feel free to comment on the page or email me.

Is there anything that could be put into place in order for you to tell a health professional? Answer would be really helpful as it could assist in breaking down the stigma.

I was meeting with a very good friend today and we discussed the "criteria" for PND. Can it  not just simply be increased anxiety, or depression does it have to meet symptoms A,B and C? Its such a different experience for people, and it needs to be widened in my opinion because its far too rigid.

This is an "all over" post today but I have an almost 4 year old running around me ! Apologies.