Join us today on Twitter as we get nitty and gritty with the signs & symptoms of Postpartum Mood & Anxiety Disorders. Have questions about just what goes on inside a PMAD? Catch up with us at 1pm ET and 830pm ET on Twitter using the hashtag #PPDChat. See you then!
Hi, y’all!!!
This week includes my birthday. I want to spend the week highlighting non-profits who are doing a heck of a job to support families struggling with Perinatal Mood & Anxiety Disorders.
Today, I’m highlighting the Tree of Hope Foundation. I met Pamela Moffit in 2010 during a Postpartum Support International Conference. We hit it off fabulously. She’s full of life but very, very dedicated and passionate to ensuring women do not face the same fate as her sister-in-law and niece, Mary and Caroline. In 2004, Mary ended her life and her 5 week old daughter’s life as well. It was this tragedy that provided the seed for the Tree of Hope to bloom. (You can read an article about this here)
Pamela works tirelessly to save just one person, a personal goal I also share with my work, a goal all of us who work with those who fight have – just one person. Then once we’ve done that, we go back to that very same goal. It’s a simple goal but it’s more than we were doing before and it makes a difference.
Right now, the Tree of Hope is doing a LOT of fundraising. In honour of my birthday, I’d ask that you go visit their site, nose around, get to know what this awesome non-profit is up to, and maybe even donate if you can afford to do so. If you’re in metro-Detroit, you can also volunteer. Raising our voices decimates stigma but funding organizations who are in the trenches makes a REAL difference in REAL lives.
Thank you, Pamela, and Tree of Hope, for rocking it in Michigan and making a difference in your surrounding community. Keep up the amazing work, one woman at a time.
ATTENTION: The annual fundraiser is just around the corner on the 11th of October. If you’re in the area, GO! You can register here.
Hey, y’all!!!
Perinatal Mood Disorders are a lonely road to travel. We have all been there and we have all heard other mothers say the following phrase:
“I felt so alone.”
Thing is, we are not alone. So.NOT.ALONE.
With this approach in mind, I am expanding #PPDChat to include guests in addition to the regular supportive chats. So, in addition to using #PPDChat for support throughout the week, community members will be able to chat with experts, survivors, and advocates.
Guests so far have included but are not limited to:
Karen Kleiman, founder of Postpartum Stress Center
Claire, founder of Life With a Baby
Cristi Comes of Motherhood Unadorned & AFSP of Washington
Text4Baby and Board Member Colleen Craft
and many other knowledgeable and compassionate folks dedicated to supporting women and families as they navigate the perinatal period. It’s been a blast chatting with them and sharing additional insight and knowledge.
Are you an expert, an advocate, survivor, or representative of an organization supporting families through Perinatal Mood & Anxiety Disorders? Know someone who would be a perfect fit?
Talk to me about chatting with #PPDChat. We are a volunteer run peer-based support chat, talking every Monday at 1pm and 8:30pm ET via Twitter. Read more about #PPDChat guidelines here. Typical guests join us in the evening but if day is better for you, we can accommodate your schedule. If you’re new to Twitter, we have a quick start guide and are willing to work with you to get you up to speed.
How to throw your hat in the ring:
Email me at mypostpartumvoice(@)gmail.com with #PPDChat Guest Request as your subject line and we’ll get the details ironed out.
Looking forward to this new chapter of #PPDChat with you!
I’m thrilled to announce that Text4Baby will be joining us for chat on Monday, July 22, 2013 at 8:30pm. This is Text4Baby’s third year in operation. They provide an invaluable experience for both expectant and new mothers via a free information program that sends texts directly to your phone. Read more about them here.
Dr. Colleen Kraft, M.D., will be joining us as the medical expert on Monday. Dr. Kraft is a Professor of Pediatrics at the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine, and Pediatric Residency Program Director at Virginia Tech Carilion. Dr. Kraft is a community pediatrician with the Carilion Pediatric Clinic in Roanoke, Virginia.
Dr. Kraft attended Virginia Tech as an undergraduate, and completed her M.D. and pediatric residency at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Dr. Kraft currently serves on the Text4Baby expert panel, the National Center for Medical Home Initiatives Project Advisory Committee and the Early Brain and Child Development work-group at the American Academy of Pediatrics. She has three children who are now young adults.
You can follow Dr. Kraft on Twitter by clicking here.
The folks from Text4Baby will also be available to offer information about their services to our community members.
The topic for Monday, as stated in the announcement above, is “Perinatal Mood Disorders & Early Brain Development”. As we know, mental health issues during pregnancy and the postpartum period do affect the development of our infants. It’s not a topic we discuss often because it can be triggering and induce feelings of guilt. The key to this issue is to remember that we are not at fault – and that access to proper care and therapy for both mother and child is of the utmost importance if we are to change the outlook for all involved.
I hope you will join us for a very important discussion about this important (and often under-discussed) topic.
Over the past few years, I’ve grown to be close friends with Erika Krull. She’s an amazing woman and we have a total blast during football season. (Well, except this past year when our teams who RARELY play each other actually played each other. That was painful. But I’ve digressed.)
Erika writes over at Psych Central and is a practicing mental health counselor. We occasionally chat about mental health issues. This week has been no different and I was glad when she asked me, after I posted something on Facebook, for permission to share it with her readers at Psych Central.
I shared tips on how to take care of yourself after a tragic event, specifically in response to the events in Boston on Monday. Turns out they really apply to this entire week because it’s been a doozy.
Thank you, Erika, for a wonderful piece, and for turning my struggles with Sandy into something meaningful. I sincerely hope it helps someone.