Category Archives: family

Blogs as Peer Support for PPD

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With the recent release of the study regarding how helpful peer support is for women with Postpartum Depression, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at blogging as a form of peer support. The source of inspiration for this piece? An article by Kristin Schorsch over at the South Town Star about blogging and PPD in which yours truly is featured along with Natalie Dombrowski.

Many of the women I know who have blogs and have recovered from Postpartum Depression have found their blogging habit to be a powerful source of support. Those who read them undoubtedly feel the same way, finding strength and hope in the words that part ways with those of us who have been through the very dark in which they now find themselves enrobed.

For me, there was relief in knowing I had my blog to lean on and that through my blog I was potentially helping other families survive the very same thing I struggled against. I credit my blogging as a tremendous part of not experiencing PPD the third time around. After all, I had numerous risk factors according to several different studies and statistics.

My first risk factor lied within being a two time survivor. A third episode lies in a nearly 100% risk range. Studies have also shown that women who give birth to boys are more likely to experience Postpartum Depression than mothers who give birth to girls. My third child? A boy. I also had extenuating stressors – a marriage that was dashed onto the rocks at just 3 months postpartum after giving birth to Cameron and financial stressors to boot. Last but not least, women who experience severe pelvic pain during pregnancy are also more likely to suffer from Postpartum Depression. And guess what? I had severe pelvic pain with all three but it was the worst with Cameron. Relying solely on numbers, I should have suffered from Postpartum Depression with Cameron. Yet I didn’t.

Why?

I had peer support, social support, medication, education, blogging, meetings, advocacy, and preparation on my side.

But hey, I had all that too you say. And I still ended up suffering. Unfortunately this is where it gets tricky. What works for one woman in one situation may not work for another woman in her situation.

Why? We don’t necessarily know. What we do know is that communication with other women and TRAINED medical professionals is key to recovery. This is where I get on my soapbox.

The MOTHER’S Act would allow for research funding so we might be able to find these things out. It would also allow funding for additional social and community support programs to be implemented across the country so that no family would have to suffer silently. It would allow for women to speak up without fear about their intrusive thoughts, to admit they are not happy at a time when they feel they should be. It would educate caregivers so no more women would have to be fear being dismissed when they do speak up, as I was. It would decrease potentially lethal cases of untreated Postpartum Depression and catch episodes of Postpartum Psychosis before they reached the breaking point.

The MOTHER’S Act would finally allow for the recognition of Postpartum Mood Disorders as a true illness, allowing for the flow of ideas and treatment options between patients and clinicians to open up. It would allow us to finally create treatment networks between Pediatricians, OB’s, Therapist, Psychologists, and Psychiatrists, keeping women from slipping through the cracks and confused about which medical professional to talk with regarding their emotions.

The passage of the MOTHER’S Act would allow those of us who have survived and those of us who are still struggling to finally begin to live over the rainbow, where we deserve to live. Where there is finally acceptance, happiness, and true hope instead of disapproval, sadness, and despair that permeates the lives of so many women and families fighting to rid themselves of the beast of Postpartum Depression.

Off the soapbox now.

I blog to provide the land over the rainbow for myself and for others. We’ve fought hard enough against the rain on our own. Nothing more, nothing less. Providing hope to those who struggle behind me, those deserving of a helping hand as they claw furiously against the muddy wall of the hole they now find themselves lost inside.

We all deserve the rainbow.

Thankful

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Today I am thankful to be here. Yesterday during nap, Charlotte nearly burned the house down.

She wrapped the heater in her sheet and mattress pad. Then she knocked it over with her mattress, leaving the mattress on top. It began to smoke and overheat. I was asleep on the couch in the living room with the dogs. Fortunately Maggie woke up and went crazy when she heard the heater crash onto the floor. I got up and looked out the front door to see if anyone was here because that’s why she usually barks. No one was here so I went back to lay down

Then Charlotte called me to tell me she needed to be cleaned up. I called back and told her I’d be right there, dragged myself off the couch and headed back. I was absolutely livid at what I found. At first I couldn’t tell it was smoking because there was sunlight streaming into their room and it just looked like dust particles. But then I smelled it. And realized I couldn’t see the heater.

I have never moved so fast in my entire life. I have also never yelled so loudly in my life.

Charlotte was in time out the rest of the afternoon and unfortunately has spent the bulk of today in time out as well because she chose to remove her mattress yet again. I have a feeling I’m going to end up custom-making a mattress pad to encompass both the boxspring and mattress for her bed – complete with zippers and locks. I don’t see how else we get her to stop this behavior.

We’re completely baffled. We know she’s exercising her boundaries, testing her limits. Yet here we are. The word “No” has no meaning for her. Endangering the lives of others also means nothing to her. I’m officially scared of what she might do next and I am not comfortable being here.

Postpartum depression: Studies show peer support, trained nurses can help

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This is AWESOME news! (Although I could have told you this long ago – tis nice to have an official study to refer to now!)

TORONTO – Postpartum depression affects about 13 per cent of women in the first year after childbirth, but two new studies – one in Canada, one in the United Kingdom – have found that early identification and intervention can help new mothers who are at risk.

The result was fewer depressive symptoms in the months that followed childbirth, according to results published Friday in BMJ Online.

The Canadian study was led by Cindy-Lee Dennis, an associate professor at the University of Toronto, who had previously found that mothers receiving peer support over the telephone were significantly more likely to continue to breastfeed.

“Women just loved this telephone-based support, and I thought, well, what other conditions might this type of support be beneficial for? And so I then related this model to postpartum depression.”

The study involved 701 women in the first two weeks after giving birth who were identified as being at high risk for postnatal depression, scoring greater than nine using a measure known as the Edinburgh postnatal depression scale.

Volunteers to provide them with peer support over the telephone were recruited by putting up flyers in places like community centres and daycare centres and by putting ads in local newspapers in seven Ontario health regions.

To be a peer volunteer, women had to have experienced postpartum depression and recovered. They also took a four-hour training session, for which Dennis developed a training manual.

“What I had the peer volunteers do was let the mother lead the discussion and the conversation and I had the peer volunteers provide useful suggestions,” said Dennis, who holds a Canada research chair in perinatal community health.

The volunteers provided emotional support, validated the new mother’s experience, told the mother about strategies to make her feel better, or where she could seek help if needed.

“We found that mothers who received this telephone-based peer support were at half the risk of developing postpartum depression,” Dennis said.

Postnatal depression was defined as a score of greater than 12 on the Edinburgh postnatal depression scale. At 12 weeks, 14 per cent of women in the intervention group had postnatal depression, compared to 25 per cent in the control group that didn’t have a volunteer telephone partner.

In the other study, Jane Morrell, a health services researcher at the University of Huddersfield, trained “health visitors” – community nurses – to assess a mother’s mood and identify depressive symptoms at six to eight weeks postnatally using the Edinburgh scale. They were also taught specialized skills so they could offer “talking therapy.”

More than 4,000 new mothers took part in the trial, and those who had visits from the specially trained health visitors saw them for an hour a week for eight weeks.

“Irrespective of the kind of therapies or interventions that were offered to the women, the health visitors’ skills in the intervention group were associated with greater improvement in the intervention group than in the control group at six months postnatally,” Morrell said in an interview.

“This improvement was maintained at 12 months postnatally.”

Morrell said that in general, people don’t know enough about postnatal depression.

“Women and their partners need to be better educated about this, ideally during pregnancy,” she said.

“The moms need to be not afraid to ask for help when they’re suffering with symptoms postnatally. And there needs to be much more thorough training for health-care professionals.”

Dennis, meanwhile, said that several health regions that took part in the study plan to maintain their volunteers to continue the postnatal peer support work.

And Dennis is completing work on an economic evaluation of the trial so that health regions will know more about the costs of developing such a program and screening mothers for postpartum depression.

(source: http://www.canadaeast.com/wellness/article/542159)

Sharing the Journey with Natalie Dombrowski

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Not too long after launching The Postpartum Dads Project, I received a comment from a reporter based in Illinois requesting contact from someone with the project. I emailed and finally touched base with her last week. While doing research for an article about Natalie Dombrowski’s experience, she came across the Postpartum Dads Project site. I began to notice some traffic being directed to Unexpected Blessing from The SouthTown Star’s website and decided to check it out. This is how I discovered Natalie. Like me, she’s experienced Postpartum Depression but to a much higher level. She is also SPEAKing out about her experience and has written a book detailing her journey. I hope you enjoy reading her interview here and if you’re interested in reading her husband’s point of view, I’m happy to tell you his interview is available at The Postpartum Dads Project! You can also keep up with Natalie at her blog.

Thank you Natalie for being brave and courageous in sharing your story. It’s because so many more of us are SPEAKing up and out that the stigma is slowly being stripped away from this very real illness that rips at the very heart of so many American families.

Natalie and son Brian

Natalie and son Brian

Tell us a little bit about Natalie. What does she love to do when no one’s looking?

Well I am thirty-four years old. I am very happily married with one child presently. I love to read when I get a moment, most of the time it’s before I go to bed. I’m usually asleep after fifteen to twenty pages. Currently I am reading ‘The Memory Keeper’s Daughter” for my book club. My mother-in-law is teaching me to crochet. I thought it would be nice to learn. When I was little I used to do latch key kits. I love going to the movies. I love to shop when it is feasible; however I always pamper myself by getting either a pedicure or massage once a month. And, I enjoy having an occasional glass of wine.

As both of us know, motherhood isn’t always smiles and kisses. For some of us it gets very dark with no sign of light and the whispers we hear aren’t search parties setting out to rescue us. How dark did your experience get and what finally brought the light back into your life?

My illness was so advanced that I had to be hospitalized for twelve days. If I think back now I can still remember the immense internal pain. I was so hopeless, I felt like anything would be better than feeling the way I felt. I believe that was the darkest part of my experience. I had never felt like that in my entire life. I certainly didn’t understand why I would feel this way when I just had a baby. A baby that I planned for and wanted. Wanting to end my life was scary, but not as scary as the intrusive thoughts I had to harm my baby. At one point I imagined my son to dying from SIDS. I could not understand these immoral thoughts, but they would not stop coming. I have always fought my way through things. Between the choice of fight or flight; fight always won. This time I saw no way to fight. I didn’t know that I was sick and that I needed someone else to fight for me. That someone ended up being my husband. I remember the first time after my baby Brian was born when I truly felt hope. It was on the Fourth of July. We were going to host the Fourth but decided it wasn’t a good idea. Brian already bought fireworks, so that night I had my own personal fireworks show. Outside, monitor on the front porch, an ear’s length away from my baby, fireworks and my beautiful husband made the hope in me ignite! That is when I knew it was all going to be ok.
You also experienced a traumatic childbirth. Do you think this contributed to your experience? How have you reframed your experience?

I absolutely know that the traumatic birth contributed to my illness. I was not medically diagnosed with PPPTSD. But if more physicians were better equipped to understand and deal with mood disorders, I certainly believe it may have been my medical diagnosis. I can’t say that I have reframed my experience. What I have done is educate myself. I understand what happened to me. With this, I believe I have reframed my previous thought ‘I don’t want to have anymore children.’ I want to give myself and my husband another chance at a happy and healthy postnatal experience. And I want to have more children like I always did.

Back to You, your book about your struggle is now available at Amazon.com. What made you decide to write this book and share it with the world?

The book was originally a journal I set out to write as part of my own therapy. I had replayed everything over and over in my mind. I wanted to move on. I believed if I wrote it down I could. When I was finished I read it out loud to my husband; he encouraged me to share it with others.

What are three things that made you smile today?

Well, today, my son repeated what I said, “what happened.” He had his hands out stretched and had a look of confusion on his face! It was adorable. I smiled when my little brother, not so little – he is 31, told me that he was going to Virginia to visit a girl he met on his New Year’s cruise. I know it’s early but I love weddings. I also smiled today because I know my husband was happy to have completed a long and difficult job.

What do you find the most challenging about motherhood nowadays? The least?

I find motherhood very exhausting. I am a stay at home mom, and by the time my husband gets home I am seriously exhausted. I am thankful that he takes our little guy off my hands for an hour or more before dinner. This is an underestimated profession and lifestyle. The least challenging thing about motherhood is in the pure fact that your child makes it all worth while.

I am a strong believer that Postpartum Mood Disorders affect more than just Mom. They disrupt the entire family balance. How did your husband handle your diagnosis and hospitalization?

My husband handled my diagnosis and hospitalization in a very mature and understanding manner. He was truly my rock. However, when I was better he began to get very angry. At first I didn’t understand, but as time went on, I realized what had happen. He had to stop living his life too; not only because we had a child, but because I was sick. He certainly was not prepared for that. He was only supposed to be off for two weeks. One of which was spent with us in the hospital for the first five days of little Brian’s life. He was supposed to go back to work, his life like normal. I think this whole idea of back to work, back to normal should be redefined. New baby = a new life & change.
I read in the news article at the South Town Star that you posted notes all over the house to yourself about how you were a good mother, not to blame, etc. What were some of the other little things you did to help yourself recapture a positive mindset and come back from the dark?

That was a big one. I truly needed to replace my negative thoughts, with positive ones. Even if I didn’t believe them right away. This technique in therapy is called CBT Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. This was the approach I was given to follow. Also, the home-health care nurse we hired was a very big part of my recovery. She was my coach, cheering me on and teaching me the challenges of motherhood. We really didn’t have the money for her but we decided to use money from our wedding.
Tell us about SPEAK. What does it stand for and what are your hopes for this project?

SPEAK… stands for (Spread Postpartum Education & Awareness Kinship…) It is a five point presentation intended to educate women. I have created this from my own personal experience and my active role in learning about postnatal mood disorders. I intend to SPEAK… I taught middle school math, algebra, and geometry for almost seven years. Now my goal is to teach moms-to-be, new moms, family members directly involved with the care of a mother, everyone about this under diagnosed and under recognized disorder. Women and babies have lost their lives to this illness. I almost did. This is pointless. I know, from the conferences and books I have read that a lot of people and organizations are taking the much needed steps to push the Mother’s Act through the Senate, hopefully with the new 09’ Congress. In the meantime I feel those that do know about postnatal disorders have an obligation to help all women right now. We need to educate all women about the possibility of postpartum depression after birth. And I am not talking about the brief 15 seconds that were allotted in my own birthing class. I am talking about dedicating 50 minutes or more about the myths of motherhood, the risk factors, the screening tools that are available on-line, signs & symptoms, the law and what they can do to advocate for their health & care right now and finally I offer suggestions of how to treat this devastating illness if it happens to them. Awareness is the key.

Last but not least, what advice would you give to an expectant mother (new or experienced) about Postpartum Mood Disorders?

My advice would be to attend a SPEAK… presentation; however, they may not be in the Chicagoland area, so therefore I would advise them to be aware of the different types of mood disorders. They should know there are screening tools that can be requested especially if they have some risk factors. Her family and friends should be knowledgeable of symptoms as well. (These people closest to her need to be aware!) And in the case that she has a mood disorder, she needs help. A treatment and/or support plan can and should be in place ahead of time. A care calendar should be set up in advance for the mom. The calendar should be for no less than six weeks of care after the birth of the baby. (The mother needs to be cared for too. If she had surgery, a caesarean birth, she is unable to move around even less. Meals and infant care should be a huge part of the care calendar.) Also, the name and number of a therapist in the area that has experience with women’s health needs to be available. This is not an illness that should be learned about after the fact. Measures need to be in place ahead of time. This is the best advice I could ever give. Just like some of us may have forgotten to plan our marriage when we were planning our wedding, we really need to plan for more than just the birth of our child.

I want to thank you for the opportunity to SPEAK… :)

Sincerely, Natalie

From the mouth of babes

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“I’m glad I was born first!”

Um.

Ok.

Humble, aren’t we, Allison?

Apparently this has roots in a discussion she had with Chris today. He told her how much he enjoyed spending time with her (he took her to get an antibiotic shot – yes, we resorted to that – and then to Wendy’s for a frosty and on to Walmart for Taco Fixins) because when she was little and our only child, he didn’t get to spend a lot of time with her.

So now she’s glad she was the first born.

I can’t WAIT to find out how she uses this in the future.