Category Archives: infant

Good News if you live in Springfield, MO!

Leave a reply

Some serious kudos to Dana Lewis and Jennifer Stephens for their hard work in this area! So many moms will benefit from this! Keep up the hard work!

 

The Women’s Center is first in the region to offer postpartum depression support group

The birth of a baby is supposed to be a joyous occasion in a woman’s life. The reality is up to 80 percent of new mothers experience feelings of emotional instability, known as ‘Baby Blues” in the first weeks after pregnancy. Up to 20 percent suffer from a more severe form of depression known as postpartum depression.

The Women’s Center at CoxHealth announces the creation of two support groups designed to address topics affecting new mothers, including postpartum depression.

The first, “Mom’s New Groove“, is a series of six educational classes. The initial class in the series will be at 12:30-1:30, Wednesday, June 18 at The Turner Center conference room, 1000 E. Primrose. The classes are ongoing, so women can begin at anytime and continue until attending all six classes, which will be held at the same time and place each week.

“In the entire state of Missouri, there is only one postpartum depression support group, and it is in St. Louis, so there is a huge need in this region,” says Dana Lewis, women’s health educator at The Women’s Center.

Lewis and Jennifer Stephens, a student at Missouri State University, developed the series, which is supervised by health care professionals. Stephens suffered from postpartum depression after the birth of her first child.

“Our biggest goal with this education is to normalize postpartum depression. These classes will help women understand that they are not alone, that they shouldn’t feel bad about themselves for having these feelings and that there is now somewhere to go for help,” says Stephens.

The six classes in the “Mom’s New Groove” series include handling major adjustments in a woman’s life, understanding baby’s needs, learning safety tips, and transitioning back to work. Two classes will focus on postpartum depression. Women will learn the signs of postpartum adjustment disorder, how to cope and how a baby can change relationships. These two classes will be led by Wanda Holloway, a clinician at The Burrell Center.

Women who need additional support dealing with the strain of caring for their new baby will be encouraged to attend the second support group, “Beyond Baby Blues.”  This support group will begin after the first six weeks of “Mom’s New Groove”, and will be led by Wanda Holloway.

For more information, call The Women’s Center, 269-Lady.

Two new Blogs worth a mozy or two or three or more

Leave a reply

Check them out. I discovered these while web surfing –

Mommy Mantras

About the Mantras:

Mommy Mantras are phrases you can say in your head or out loud if you need to, during those trying moments of mothering. They act to empower you, revive you, and remind you that there is always another way to see your situation. Buddhist-inspired and psychologically grounded, these snippets of wisdom derive from entertaining and universal stories of unpredictable life with children.

About the Authors:

Mommy Mantra AuthorsDiane Dillon, Ph.D. is a psychologist, teacher and mother of two young children. She is the Director of the Child Study Team and a founding faculty member at The School at Columbia University, an innovative school serving a diverse population of faculty and community children in New York City. Previously, she was on the faculty at Columbia University’s Teachers College and served on the committee on special education in NYC. Diane attests to the effectiveness of the mantras as she invokes many of them on a daily basis.

Beth Casarjian, Ph.D. is the mother of three children under the age of seven. Beth is also the co-author of ‘Power Source: Taking Charge of Your Life,’ a book written for incarcerated and other highly at-risk youth. Currently, Beth is the clinical director of the National Emotional Literary Project for Youth-at-Risk and conducts clinical trainings and research in connection with the Power Source Program, an initiative of the Lionheart Foundation.

Miss Cellania

About Miss Cellania:

I am a single mom, and a currently unemployed radio announcer, living in Kentucky. I have way too much to do, but I love sharing things I think are funny, so this site is my hobby. I do this to avoid real work. Hope you enjoy what you find here!

Nurturing your Soul

Leave a reply

old fashoned photo frazzled momLet’s face it – parenting is rough. I mean, I’d almost rather play full contact football with the NY Giants on the really hard days. I certainly feel like I have at the end of the day. It’s at the end of those days especially that I force myself to sit back and nurture my soul. I’ve nurtured everyone else’s by then and doggone it, I deserve some lovin’ too.

As moms with PPD, we are in a unique class indeed. We marvel at moms in public who seem so put together, at moms in playgroup who calmly soothe their babies. We wonder what is wrong with us and why we are not like that. We need an entirely different set of skills and yet there is no one nearby to share these skills with us and sadly many of us are left to fend for ourselves as families find more and more distance between what used to be right next door or down the street.

Thankfully PPD is becoming more and more recognized and more information is available to us today than ever before. Slowly the stigma is being removed and women and even lawmakers are talking about PPD and coming up with solutions. In the meantime, all we can do is keep the communication lines open, learning to ask for help as well as accept help when it is offered.

I will start by sharing a few methods I’ve used to get through what I call “High Stress Moments.” You know, the moments when the baby is screaming (and has been for hours), the dogs are barking, the mailman is banging on the door, the phone starts to ring, the dishes need to be done, your toddler is throwing a tantrum in the middle of the floor because Cookie Monster didn’t pick the right letter for the day and all you want to do is for Calgon to take you away. Now. Actually, five minutes ago would have been perfect.

Tip #1: Prioritize. The baby will be just fine in his or her crib if you need a few moments to yourself, even if you just step outside or go to your room and scream or sob into your pillow. Or write it down and then tear it up if you don’t want anyone to read it. This accomplishes two things – gets it off your chest and soothes the frustration with tearing. (You could also keep bubble wrap around!) And the mailman? Well he can just leave a note. The phone? Thank goodness for voice mail. Leave a message with updates about the baby and informing callers that mom and baby are resting. Visitors? A mom I know created a letter stating what visitors would be expected to do if they came by. She had her midwife sign it to make it official. Another mom I know had a list of stuff to be done on the refrigerator and yet another mom kept her bathrobe at the door so that she could appear to have been napping if anyone happened by.

Tip#2: Take time for you. And yes, that even means just grocery trips by yourself. Never before has a grocery trip been such a luxurious indulgence and I usually treat myself to something special and it does not have to be high in calories or fat. (Although chocolate ice cream is a favorite of mine!)

Tip#3: Make time for you & your significant other. Does not have to be sexual, just a coffee or even a nice dinner at home once baby has gone to bed or nap. Go to the following website: www.postpartumstress.com and click on their Family Support Link. They have a Postpartum Pact for you and your partner to complete. This will help your partner better understand how they can help you. They also have cards you can print out and hand out to loved ones.

Tip#4: Try to educate those around you about PPD. If you are unable to do this on your own, recruit your physician to get handouts and maybe even make an appointment for both you and your loved one to talk with your doctor about PPD.

And last but not least, please remember that you are not alone, you are not to blame, and you will be well with help.

Absolutely OUTRAGED

Leave a reply

UGH!

As if it’s not enough that we already face enough during PPD, the stigma, the refusal of acknowledgement, the confusion over baby blues, postpartum depression, other mood disorders, and Postpartum Psychosis – then along comes an article like this one: Woman found insane in Baby Blues Case seeks Sanity Restoration with the subtitle specifying: Sheryl Massip was found not guilty by reason of insanity 20 years ago for killing her infant son while suffering from post-partum psychosis.

Cover your ears. Prepare your eyes. i’m about to yell. And I mean YELL.

THE BABY BLUES ARE NOT AT ALL SIMILAR TO 

POSTPARTUM PSYCHOSIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Get your facts straight Mr. Welborn. (by the way, you can email him and call him (714 834-3784.) Let him know that he is seriously mistaken with his usage of terms.

Let’s revisit the facts, shall we?

According to an article by Helen Jones at the Postpartum Support International website, the baby blues affect up to 80% of new moms and involve crying for no reason or general stress or anxiety that dissipates after the first few weeks.

Within the same article, Jones defines Postpartum Psychosis as:

Postpartum Psychosis (PPP)

The onset is usually sudden, with symptoms including: delusions (strange beliefs) and/or hallucinations; feeling very irritated, hyperactive and unable to sleep; significant mood changes; and using poor judgment in making decisions. Women who are more vulnerable are individuals who have a previous history of psychiatric disorders, previous postpartum mood disorders, or a family history of psychiatric disorders. Women who display any of these symptoms should contact their health care provider immediately. Family members should be alert for these symptoms as well, since they are often able to recognize serious symptoms sooner than the mother does.

 Do these even SOUND like they’re in the same ball park?

NO.

In fact, Baby Blues aren’t even classified as a mental health disorder.

Could referring to PPP as the baby blues scare a brand new mother who may be feeling a little weepy or be starting to become seriously depressed? HECK YEAH.

To make matters worse, Mr. Welborn also later refers to PPP as an extreme form of Postpartum Depression. Let me make one thing crystal clear. POSTPARTUM DEPRESSION IS NOT THE SAME THING AS POSTPARTUM PSYCHOSIS. It’s an entirely different creature consisting of a break with reality. From what I understand, Postpartum Depression cannot develop into Postpartum Psychosis. (I’m doing some checking into that and will get back with you regarding research on that point)

I am very disappointed in Mr. Welborn’s apparent lack of tact and compassion for new mothers struggling with this range of disorders. And even more disappointed that the newspaper he works for would publish this article without such a brazen irresponsibility and lack of concrete understanding into the condition on which they are reporting. VERY DISAPPOINTED. Did I mention I’m pissed too? Or have you already figured that out?

Those of you who either read this blog regularly or know me should recognize that I don’t do this very often but when I do, I mean it and I am truly, deeply saddnened that this is still happening. Media sensationalism of these cases is a barrier to treatment for women – I’ve had many women share with me that they or their husbands are fearful of admitting they have postpartum mood issues for fear that what happens to the women they read about in the paper may happen to them. UGH! I can’t personally guarantee that you won’t develop PPP but I CAN tell you that it is rare – extremely rare BUT these cases are the ones who make the news. Not the positive cases of recovery – no – the ones that end in sheer tragedy and will bring in viewers.

Email Mr. Welborn. Call him. Contact the OC Register’s Editorial Staff and Operating Management. Let them know we won’t stand for this. Let them know that if they’re going to cover a PPD story they need to get their facts straight and focus on the positive rather than the negative. BE SENSITIVE not only to the people in the story but the people who may be reading the story. They owe us that much.

Chinese Officer Breastfeeds Quake Orphans

Leave a reply

I know the primary topic here is Postpartum Mood Disorders but this story is a heart tugger and an amazing tribute to the power of maternal instinct. I am awed by this officer’s strength in the face of such an enormous tragedy.

Here’s the story as it appeared at cnn.com:

JIANGYOU, China (CNN) — A Chinese police officer is being hailed as a hero after taking it upon herself to breast-feed several infants who were separated from their mothers or orphaned by China’s devastating earthquake.

art.woman.cnn.jpg

Police officer Jiang Xiaojuan, 29, was feeding nine babies at one point.

Officer Jiang Xiaojuan, 29, the mother of a 6-month-old boy, responded to the call of duty and the instincts of motherhood when the magnitude-7.9 quake struck on May 12.

“I am breast-feeding, so I can feed babies. I didn’t think of it much,” she said. “It is a mother’s reaction and a basic duty as a police officer to help.”

The death toll in the earthquake jumped Thursday to more than 51,000, and more than 29,000 are missing, according to government figures. Thousands of children have been orphaned; many others have mothers who simply can’t feed them.

At one point, Jiang was feeding nine babies.

“Some of the moms were injured; their fathers were dead … five of them were orphans. They’ve gone away to an orphanage now,” she said. Video Watch the officer care for babies »

She still feeds two babies, including Zhao Lyuyang, son of a woman who survived the quake but whose breast milk stopped flowing because of the traumatic conditions.

“We walked out of the mountains for a long time. I hadn’t eaten in days when I got here, and my milk was not enough,” said that mother, Zhao Zong Jun. “She saved my baby. I thank her so much. I can’t express how I feel.”

Liu Rong, another mother whose breast milk stopped in the trauma, was awed by Jiang’s kindness.

“I am so touched because she has her own baby, but she fed the disaster babies first,” Liu said. “If she hadn’t fed my son, he wouldn’t have had enough to eat.”

Jiang has became a celebrity, followed by local media and proclaimed on a newspaper front page as “China’s Mother No. 1.”

She’s embarrassed by the fuss.

“I think what I did was normal,” she said. “In a quake zone, many people do things for others. This was a small thing, not worth mentioning.”

There has been a huge outpouring of support from families who want to adopt babies orphaned by the quake. But that process takes time, and there are mouths to feed.

Jiang misses her own son, who’s being cared for through the emergency by in-laws in another town, but she is aware of the new connections she’s made.

“I feel about these kids I fed just like my own. I have a special feeling for them. They are babies in a disaster.”