My son Daniel was born in August 1977. My wife Chris had post-natal depression as she had had in the years after the birth of her first child Angela in 1970. By 1977 her two girls went to primary school. I had the first of a package of three episodes of bi-polar disorder in early 1978; this was followed by a second in 1979 and a third in May 1980. The 1978 episode began in NSW when I was teaching a course at a Baha'i summer school. Each of these episodes was extremely disorienting and in May 1980 I was finally treated with lithium which put an end to most of my symptoms forever. This was the general family context for my wife's post-natal depression.

David Herbert, in his book Engaging Eccentrics: Recollections( Peter Owen, London, 1990, p.37) talks about what he calls the "missionary side" to his character which "makes it impossible for (him) to love anyone who....does not need(his) help." This particular anecdote caught my eye and mind because, looking back, it seems to me I had some of this tendency. Indeed, I married a second time, a very talented and lovely woman, and part of my motivation was simply that she needed my help to cope with life and a post-natal depression she was fighting at the time. I wrote a bit of a poem about the experience:

After a lifetime of wall-to-wall people,
it had come down to this: a small circle,
nature's bliss and enough print to daily kiss.

I still liked to fill the gap and help someone
who came on my path. I don't think that
would ever change. It was part of my role
upon this stage and, indeed, fancy that.

I married once quite long ago in '75
someone whom I helped, who was low
and I tried to bring her up to go
along life's path and be in the know.

It seems in my blood this tendency
to help the needy, sad and sorry.
Not as many cross my path now.
My journey seems on different roads
With different stories, different loads.

Ron Price
15 November 2001
(updated for this Pregnancy,
Birth and Baby Forum on
18/6/08)
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Some thoughts in retrospect after more than 30 years.-Ron Price