Leah O’Halleron, 25, is taking part in the Vhi Women’s Mini Marathon for the first time, ‘not only for myself, but for every woman in Ireland that has gone through postnatal depression’.
The Kildare woman was already a mum to a one-year-old son when she went through postnatal depression after giving birth to her second child, a son, in May 2024.
Juggling being a new mum of two, Leah found her mental health spiralling, and just months later, she wound up with suicidal thoughts, and thankfully, her beloved mum intervened.
Leah O’Halleron with her two sons. Pic: Provided
Her youngest was a ‘clinging’ baby, with Leah telling EVOKE: ‘He just wouldn’t let my partner look after him. It was purely me. He would only feed if it came from me, he would only sleep on me, and he would only be around me.
‘I had a really young toddler, he’d only just turned one, he’d only just started walking, and he was still very much dependent on me. Trying to do that with a very clingy baby, my mental health just started declining.
‘It got really difficult because everything had to be done, and I wasn’t really looking after myself. I was taking a backseat to make sure the house was clean, that my two kids’ needs were met, and that my relationship was OK.’
Leah O’Halleron, 25, is taking part in the Vhi Women’s Mini Marathon.
Pic: Provided
‘I left myself on the back burner, and very slowly, my anxiety started getting worse,’ Leah told us. ‘I started to feel like I wasn’t a good mom, I wasn’t a good partner, I wasn’t a good friend, I wasn’t a good daughter, everything like that.
‘It took a massive turn. I slowly became a shell and became a very empty person. I had no emotions. It got to the point where I couldn’t go to sleep by myself; my partner would have to have the TV on really loud so that I wasn’t in my own thoughts.
‘I couldn’t be near my phone, because the news would trigger my anxiety. Then it started getting really bad, to the point where I was slurring my words, and my speech started slowing down. I started distancing myself from my partner even.’
Leah O’Halleron with her family. Pic: Provided
‘In November [2024], it got really, really bad, and I started having suicidal thoughts. I rang my mom one day, and I just said to her, “Look, this is what I’m going through, I don’t plan to be here, I don’t want to be here”.
‘Bless her, she literally drove three hours from Mayo to be with me that exact day, made me ring the doctors and book an appointment. Then she was like, “You need to tell your partner what’s going on”.
‘So I rang him, and he obviously knew the general gist of what was going on from what he could physically see, but most of the time, I wasn’t telling him what my thoughts were. He was like, “You definitely need to go and get seen to”.
Leah O’Halleron, 25, is taking part in the Vhi Women’s Mini Marathon. Pic: Provided
Doctors asked what avenue of treatment Leah would like to explore, and originally, she was ‘hesitant’ to try medication, ‘because there’s a lot of stigma behind it’. Instead, she went to therapy and ended up having to go back and get a prescription for medication.
‘I think there’s a lot of stigma behind postnatal depression, and a lot of the time people think that you don’t want to be around your baby,’ Leah said, but this definitely wasn’t the case, and it was her two sons who were the light at the end of the tunnel.
Speaking about why she felt the urge to ring her mum that day, the Kildare woman said: ‘I was like, “I won’t be able to be there for my kids”. That’s not something I want them to ever go through.’
Leah O’Halleron and her family. Pic: Provided
‘I think that’s what slowly made me get the help. I rang my mom that day, and was like, “I want to be there for my kids. I want to see every milestone that they go through. I also don’t want to have to leave everything for my partner”.
‘It was very much like, “I need to do this for myself as well as everyone else”. I knew that I was due to come off maternity leave, which was going to help because I’d be back to dealing with adults.
‘My eldest son, he was still only like one, he wasn’t able to speak or anything, so I was having no communication during the day. I knew that I would see a light, but I just needed that kind of extra help.’
Leah O’Halleron, 25, is taking part in the Vhi Women’s Mini Marathon. Pic: Provided
The 25-year-old was already big into her fitness, but has ‘always wanted to get into running’, and what better to prepare for than the Vhi Women’s Mini Marathon?
Leah is taking part in the mini marathon by herself on Sunday, May 31, and is fundraising for Postnatal Depression Ireland.
‘I’m so unbelievably grateful to say that I didn’t let postnatal depression win, and I’m here today to see my beautiful family grow and see the amazing life I’m living,’ she told EVOKE. ‘It’s no longer about me, I’m extremely lucky to have gotten the amazing medical help I needed, and it’s now about the previous, current, and future mothers and what raising money for this incredible charity can do
‘If I help one person by even just raising awareness about postnatal depression, or postnatal depression symptoms, or about the charity itself, then I have done my job.’