Mum Rebecca Fisher, 23, says blog is 'lifesaver'

Pic:Rebecca Fisher (pictured with daughters Elsa and Cleo) found out she was pregnant at the same time as her mother - their babies were born 17 days apart/bbc
Staff reporter(wp/bbc):    
A mother who suffered post-traumatic stress disorder after giving birth to her second child said her blog has been her "lifesaver".

Rebecca Fisher, 23, originally launched it shortly after her brother Rory was born with Down's syndrome - 17 days after she had her first child in 2015.

The blogger, from Norfolk, has since won awards and said being a parent in a rural village could be "isolating".

"I don't know what I'd have done without [the blog]," she said.

Mrs Fisher lives in Burnham Market with daughters Elsa, three, and 18-month-old Cleo, and her husband Jonny, 26.

She said The Coastal Mummy had helped her overcome a string of challenges.

Her younger daughter was born by emergency Caesarean section, which led to post-traumatic stress disorder and post-natal depression. It was the blog which helped her through the distressing experience.

"I couldn't speak about it afterwards," she said.

"But if I've got a problem, I will write it down and then it's out of my head. It is like a cleanse.

"If my bad birth experience helps one other person then that helps me."

It was also the village's rural nature that prompted her to start writing after her family was shunned by some people when brother Rory, now three, arrived.

He had been a much-wanted fifth baby by Mrs Fisher's mother Jayne Thompson, 44, who revealed her pregnancy at the same time as her daughter.

"I was dreading telling my parents. I called my mum into my room and said 'I think I'm pregnant' and she went 'That's funny, because I think I am too'," said Mrs Fisher, who was at college at the time.

The family were told there was a 20 per cent chance the baby could have Down's syndrome, so they were prepared but soon felt the need to raise awareness after he was born.

"People either stood by us or stopped speaking to us," said Mrs Fisher, who describes herself as a Down's syndrome advocate.

She said she wanted to challenge a lot of the "myths" about the condition. "I thought I'd get something out there," she said.

Despite having to retake her English GCSE, Mrs Fisher has gone on to win a national Mencap journalism award and a local parenting blog title.

"I am a completely different person to who I was at school," she said.

"I wonder what my English teacher would say if they saw what I do now."