If you are frightened right now
Go to the nearest hospital emergency department. Take somebody with you if you can. In an emergency in India, dial 112.
Do not wait to be certain, and do not wait to be able to explain it well. I have just had a baby and I am not coping is a complete sentence and it is enough to start with.
You do not have to be in crisis to call one of these. You do not need a diagnosis, or to know what is wrong. Read the hours beside each number before you dial, some of these answer at three in the morning and some do not.
India
Tele-MANAS
1441624×7, multiple languages, free. The Government of India national mental health helpline, the first number to try.
iCALL, TISS
9152987821Monday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Free. Telephone and email counselling, not a 24-hour crisis line.
There is, at the time of writing, no dedicated national helpline in India for maternal or perinatal mental health specifically. That is a real gap, and it is one of the reasons the book exists. Until there is one, Tele-MANAS is the number to start with, and you are entitled to say the words “I have recently had a baby” at the start of the call.
Outside India
US · National Maternal Mental Health Hotline
1-833-852-626224×7, call or text, English and Spanish. Partners and family may call too.
When it is not an emergency, but it is not nothing
A helpline is for the worst hour. For the weeks around it, an assessment with somebody who knows your history is the thing that actually moves.