“I Rebuilt Myself After Motherhood Nearly Broke Me” :  Neela’s Story of IVF, Postnatal Depression and Finding Herself Again

For Neela Prabhu, motherhood didn’t start with a baby. It began with a battle.

After being diagnosed with unexplained infertility, Neela and her husband began a long and emotionally draining journey through IVF. Despite doing “everything right”eating well, exercising, no smoking, it wasn’t easy. “It was like someone flicked a switch inside me,” she says, when describing how her attitude toward babies changed in her mid-20s. But what followed wasn’t the joyful journey she imagined.

Having tried Clomid. Then IUI. Still nothing. IVF felt like a last resort, and then, unexpectedly, the first round worked. “I remember screaming when I saw the two lines on the test,” she recalls. But that joy was tempered with caution. “I didn’t let myself fully believe it until the 12-week scan.”

Her second IVF journey was even harder, three rounds this time, but eventually led to her youngest daughter, Karishma, whose name fittingly means miracle. But the miracles didn’t protect Neela from what came next.

---

“You’ve got what you wanted, so why are you struggling?”

Neela faced postnatal depression after both births, but the second time nearly broke her. “I felt like a hollow shell,” she says. “I wasn’t eating, I wasn’t washing, and I didn’t feel bonded with my baby.”

Despite being surrounded by well-meaning family, she felt completely alone. “At one point, there were eight people downstairs passing the baby around and not one came up to check on me.”

She was lucky, her GP recognised the signs and referred her for counselling. But the NHS support was limited and one-size-fits-all. It wasn’t until she found private therapists that she began to rebuild herself.

“I call myself Neela 2.0 now,” she says. “I picked up the broken pieces and decided what parts of me I wanted to keep, and what I needed to let go of.”

---

Pushing Back on the Pressure

What helped Neela get through? Setting boundaries and speaking her truth, even if it shocked people. When strangers or relatives asked why she hadn’t had a second baby yet, her responses were unapologetically blunt:

• “Shall I call you next time I’m having sex with my husband?”

• “Yes, I do want a second... would you like to contribute to the IVF fund?”

Neela’s honesty extends to her view on motherhood, too. She never felt that instant “rush of love” and she’s done pretending she did. “Motherhood is a one-way road. You don’t go back to who you were before, and that’s okay.”

---

What Neela Wants You to Know

• Don’t assume. Don’t ask if someone’s having another baby. Don’t ask why they only have one.

• Ask how mum is. Not just the baby.

• Support needs to last longer. Postnatal support shouldn’t end at the six-week check or a one-off questionnaire.

• You’re not alone. Every mum deserves someone who sees her, not just the baby she’s holding.

---

“I’m a Super Mumma Because…”

“I’m a Super Mumma because I have two IVF miracle babies and I rebuilt myself after my almost two-year postnatal journey—which almost cost me my life.”

 

Neela Prabhu is a qualified and licensed homeopath based in Croydon and Bromley, South London. With nearly 20 years of experience as a community pharmacist, she transitioned to homeopathy to offer more holistic and root-cause-focused care. As the founder of Homeopathic Harmony, Neela supports busy working parents and individuals seeking natural, side-effect-free solutions for chronic conditions, including hormonal imbalances, digestive issues, and emotional health challenges .