‘My ability to cope was unravelling’: how I navigated ADHD and childbirth – and seven things I learned

Neurodivergence can make an already challenging process far trickier — and in the UK support isn’t automatically available. A new book aims to help mothers prepare

I t’s 7am in a postnatal ward. I’ve been brought here having given birth around four hours earlier. I’m hot and have not slept since arriving at the hospital at 9pm for an induction, only to go into labour spontaneously before it could begin. All around me is incandescent hospital light and the sound of crying newborns. This would be challenging enough for someone who isn’t neurodivergent, but coupled with my attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) I could feel my ability to cope unravelling.

I remember looking around, crying, unable to shut off the noise in my brain. “What if I don’t ever sleep again,” the little voice asked. I shut my eyes and the noise grew. Then there was my newborn son, lying next to me in a cot, and the fact that I had absolutely no idea how to look after him. I pressed the emergency buzzer and told the midwife who arrived that I could not breathe and needed to be discharged immediately. She said they couldn’t do that because I was under the mental health team and needed to speak to them first. I cried more.

The rest of my stay in hospital is a blur. I begged anyone who came near my bed for sleeping pills. Eventually, with the help of my midwife and the mental health team, I was sent home that day.

It was only a year later, when I learned I was neurodivergent, that my struggles that day finally made sense. Certain parts of becoming a parent are simply harder with ADHD. Birth itself strips away any sense of predictability, and ADHD brains often manage anxiety by controlling their environment – being on a postnatal ward, with its constant lights, noises, and the feeling of being trapped inside, can be sensory overload.

The NHS currently has no consistent, ADHD-specific maternity pathway, so support for women with ADHD during childbirth varies widely and often depends on individual clinicians recognising and accommodating their needs, rather than on a standardised system.

When I gave birth, I was told afterwards that nothing really exists to support women and research is limited. It prompted me to write a book about ADHD and becoming a parent to help other women. Here’s a summary of what I learned.

Scientists believe that ADHD symptoms can be affected by hormones, and a study by King’s College London is aiming to look at exactly that. Oestrogen and progesterone are the two main female hormones, and both rise rapidly in pregnancy. Oestrogen has a stimulating effect on the brain – it boosts dopamine and serotonin, the chemicals behind focus, mood, and motivation – so when it’s high, ADHD symptoms tend to ease. Progesterone, which rises after ovulation and in pregnancy, may have an opposing effect on dopamine signalling to oestrogen and can even make ADHD medication less effective.

In the first trimester, both hormones rise fast. Things often improve in the second trimester, when oestrogen levels are higher and more stable. Anecdotally, I heard from psychiatrists I interviewed that some women find their ADHD symptoms ease in pregnancy as a result.