When Louise Redman gave birth to her son, she suffered from devastating post-natal depression.
During a visit to her GP she completed the questionnaire for new mums, and her results were "off the charts".
"I was expecting that I would be deliriously happy but instead it was the exact opposite. It was some of the worst time in my life," Redman tells SBS, eight years on.
Dissatisfied with the option to go on antidepressants, Redman suffered through two years of the illness before she saw light at the end of the tunnel.
So when the Canberra mum welcomed her second child, she was determined not to go through the same ordeal.
Yoga works for some people, but archery worked for me. We call it weaponised yoga.
"When I felt all the same symptoms coming back on when my daughter was born I thought, I'm not doing this again," she says.
"I'm not going to the GP because it wasn't helpful, he just wanted to put me on drugs straight away, and that's not going to solve my problem, that's just going to mask it.
"So I thought, 'I'll go out and get some sun, I'll try something new that's completely unrelated to children."
Redman turned to a sport she had briefly tried and enjoyed when she was a teenager - archery.
When her daughter was four-months-old, Redman picked up the bow and arrow for the first time in years.
She started going to the archery range every Sunday. Then she started going every weekend day. And finally she upped it to going every evening after her husband got home from work.
Louise Redman Source: Facebook/Louise Redman - Archery
After two months she didn't feel the symptoms of postnatal depression any more.
"I was happy all the time. I had something to look forward to," she says.
"Archery got me out of the house, gave me a break, let me do something other than be a mum, because as a new mum you tend to just get lost in that, you lose yourself a little bit.
"Within a couple of months I was back to my normal self again, and I'd met so many people."
Five years on and Redman is one of the best archers in Australia, competing all over the country and around the world.
A portrait of archer Louise Redman by her daughter. Source: Facebook/Louise Redman - Archery
She recently returned from the national championships in Western Australia, where she took home the gold medal in the National Short Course and won the event overall.
Not bad for a sport she took up to get out of the house.
"I'm a little obsessive when I like something," she says with a laugh.
"Archery got me out of the house, gave me a break, let me do something other than be a mum, because as a new mum you tend to just get lost in that, you lose yourself a little bit.
Now she's trying to encourage other mums and dads - or anyone struggling with depression - to give it a go.
"Archery is one of those sports that anyone can do it," says Redman, a proud advocate for .
"There's no such thing as talent in archery, you've just got to work hard. You can be a 70 year old taking it up for the first time, or you can be an 18 year old who wants to be at the next Olympics and will shoot six hours a day.
"It requires a lot of focus and it's almost meditative. Yoga works for some people, but archery worked for me. We call it weaponised yoga."
Now working as a coach, she keeps an eye out for anyone who comes along pushing a pram and looking for a bit of an escape.
"I'll just go over and give them a little bit of extra attention and say 'hey how're you going?. This has been really good for me, and this is a bit of my story.' And you find a lot of them are in the same boat," she says.
2017 has been her biggest year to date - and also her most expensive, as Redman is self-funded, and has to juggle her archery with her work as a remedial massage therapist and her family commitments. Along with , she is hoping to find sponsorship in 2018.
But whatever happens, she won't be giving up the sport she loves.
And not only has it made her a more patient and calm parent, it has taught her two kids, now 5 and 8 years old, a valuable life lesson: "They can see that you can start from zero and not know anything about something, and if you really want to do it you can keep learning."
