Category Archives: public awareness

A round-up from the Blogosphere: ABC’s PPD Mis-practice

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A lot of you have been blogging your hearts out about last week’s episode of Private Practice. Here’s the low-down on what’s being said around the blogosphere regarding ABC’s PPD Mis-practice:

Katherine Stone shares an important perspective from a reader: Warrior Mom & Postpartum Psychosis Survivor: Why it’s Important to Educate the Public about Postpartum Psychosis

Natalie Dombrowski, a recent Sharing the Journey participant, is asking folks to BAN Together.

C Shell also shares her opinion on the show. C Shell is recovering from PPP and also offers a unique insight.

Karen Kleiman over at the Postpartum Stress Center explains why PPD and TV don’t mix.

Shane at Heart Reflections offers a Penny for Your Thoughts.

Tara Mock renames the show – Private-Out-of-Practice.

And Ivy at Ivy’s PPD Blog chimes in and calls ABC’s Private Practice an outright failure.

Also, I want to encourage you to check out this post over at Katherine’s blog about How to Contact the Media regarding Responsible Mental Health Representation. Take a few seconds and shoot off an email to ABC (and advertisers).

By the way, if you’re interested, the following companies had ads during Private Practice (at least here in ATL):

  • Nuva Ring
  • Bank of America
  • McDonald’s
  • Kay Jewelers
  • Nights at Rodanthe(movie)
  • AT&T
  • Hershey’s
  • Ashley’s Furniture
  • Dove
  • Taken (movie)
  • Pepsi
  • All laundry detergent
  • Alli (weight loss)
  • Target
  • Breathe Right Nasal Strips
  • High School Musical 3
  • AlamoCar Rental
  • Arby’s
  • Air Tran
  • LongHorn Steak House
  • Toyota
  • Cherry 7 Up
  • Madagascar 2
  • Electrolux Appliances
  • Zaxby’s
  • Infiniti

More irresponsibility from ABC regarding PMD’s

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Wow.

ABC has really outdone themselves on the stigma and ignorance angle. Before we go any further, yes, I realize this is a fictional show. BUT keep in mind that ABC approached PSI to attempt to be responsible but didn’t follow through and instead jumped straight through the flaming media sensationalization hoop. Why? Because that’s what brings in the almighty dollar. Shame on ABC for selling out on responsibility.

A quick visit to Katherine Stone’s blog this morning got my juices revving again. And Susan Dowd Stone was not happy about the display either.

Bad enough that Private Practice chose not to air the carefully crafted PSA but they didn’t provide proper direction for the PSA to even address the right thing.

Then, ABC now has a poll up at the Private Practice website asking if a mother who is being treated after attempting to drown her baby should have access to her baby. The answers available? Yes, it would motivate her to get better and then No. Totally insensitive and irresponsible.

And let’s not forget the attempt at being “professional” by Private Practice with their Researcher’s Blog which is supposed to explain the weekly episode with facts, etc. This week’s entry blows. The researcher explains mania and manic behavior yet offers no insight into how the dad missed mom’s behavior. (Hello! Unless Dad knows what to look for and has been educated by professionals around him AND mom is communicating because she too has been educated, it’s very easy for dad to miss the signs and symptoms – I know I hid my symptoms pretty well for awhile the first time around because I knew how I was supposed to be acting.)

Katherine is calling for a boycott of the show and I have to wholeheartedly agree. Pull the Plug on Private Practice and their sham of attempting to represent the medical world. How dare they drop the ball on such a sensitive topic! No voice will have a louder effect than a sudden drop in viewership because that means decrease in advertising and then well, if a show isn’t profitable anymore……. Spread the word – and stop watching.

Pregnancy hormone predicts postpartum depression, study finds

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I know, I know – old news, right? I thought I had posted this but apparently it never made it to the “majors” and got stalled in the wings. So here ya go.

I have a few gripes with this research starting with what doctors will do with the results once they have them. One would hope they would go ahead and set up preventive care and educate the patient and her family if she did have the elevated level. How reliable is this test? Should it be implemented? Should it be mandatory? Who would be responsible for care if results were positive? Would a team approach be created? This really raises more questions than it answers.

Women with elevated levels mid-pregnancy at higher risk, study finds

Irvine, Calif. – Women who have higher levels of a hormone produced by the placenta midway through pregnancy appear more likely to develop postpartum depression, a study authored by a UC Irvine researcher finds. The discovery could help identify and treat women at risk for postpartum depression long before the onset of symptoms.

Ilona Yim, psychology and social behavior assistant professor, and colleagues found that women whose levels of corticotrophin-releasing hormone started to increase more rapidly around 25 weeks of gestation had a higher incidence of postpartum depression. Normally secreted in very small amounts by the hypothalamus, this hormone regulates the body’s response to stress. During pregnancy, large amounts are produced in the placenta and are associated with delivery.

“The hormone we studied plays an important part in pregnancy and has been linked to depression,” Yim said. “Many factors may cause some women’s bodies to produce more of this hormone during pregnancy. Evidence suggests that stress early in pregnancy could play a role.”

The researchers studied the hormone-postpartum depression link using data from a larger study funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. They took blood samples from 100 pregnant women and assessed symptoms of depression throughout pregnancy, then again nine weeks after delivery. Of the 100 women, 16 developed postpartum depression symptoms during follow-up visits. Three-fourths of those women, the study concludes, could have been identified in mid-pregnancy based solely on hormone levels.

ABC’s Private Practice misses the mark

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Like many other members of the PPD advocacy community, I watched Private Practice tonight. It’s a show I don’t usually watch but tuned in because the storyline had to do with Postpartum Depression. It said so right in the description: Cooper, Violet and Pete treat a woman with postpartum depression. But she didn’t have postpartum depression which affects up to 20% of new moms.

A jump was quickly made to postpartum psychosis and mom was sedated and put on meds that were not compatible with breastfeeding (even though she WAS indeed nursing). There was also no clear cut consent shown to this course of treatment.

Then Violet didn’t want to give the baby back to the mother for fear that THEY would be the ones thought of as “what were you thinking!?” We work SO hard to fight against the myth that a mother’s baby will be taken from her if she seeks help. I can’t help but think about how many new moms saw this show and may possibly avoid seeking help because of this portrayal.

There were a few things they did get right. Cooper pointed out how rare psychosis is and stated that it’s NOT normal. And he’s right – postpartum psychosis affects 1 to 2 moms per 1000 births so no, it’s NOT normal.

And the portrayal of the mom with psychosis? Her behaviors and irrational beliefs? The fast talking and incoherent babbling? Totally on point. In fact, the one scene where she admits to how she’s really feeling got me right there. All of the sudden I was back in bed, curled in the fetal position waiting for my husband to get home. My breath caught and my eyes watered up. I’m nearly three years past that point but man it came rushing back in a heartbeat. It’s SO hard to forget that fall yet at the same time it has become a very empowering memory for me because I know how far I have journeyed since then.

The PSA was missing from the end of the show as well. If you go to ABC’s website and click on Private Practice then go the The Ex-Life (I think that was the title of tonight’s episode), the PSA is the first of the scenes you can select to watch. Hopefully your computer works their site better than mine does – I had two video audios running at once which made it really hard to hear what Amy Brennan (Violet) had to say (and thanks to Katherine Stone over @ Postpartum Progress for working with ABC on the PSA! Good job!)

Overall I have to give them credit for trying. They got a few things right. It could have been better but hey, it is a fictional drama, right? And just as here, not everything is perfect there. I suppose we’ll just have to be happy that they even bothered to broach the topic and consulted PSI in the process, right? Right?

Michael Phelps and Marijuana

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The story broke over the weekend – Michael Phelps used marijuana. A photo of him using a bong led to his admission of pot use. It will damage his career, his endorsements, his reputation. It has probably hurt those around him and affected their ability to trust anything he says or does. How do I know that other than the fact that every single news article states these facts?

I know this because I am married to a recovering marijuana addict. My husband has worked very hard at his sobriety over the past 10 months. Along the way we have had pitfalls and are just now realizing how much damage his addiction has done to our marriage and to his habits. He’s got nearly 23 years of addiction related habit developments to undo. I am proud of how far he has come and how much he has done to prove his dedication to our family and our marriage.

My heart goes out to Michael’s family, to Michael, to his friends. I can only hope that this will serve as his wake-up call and allow him to leave the pot use behind. I know this is a hard thing to do and I will be praying that God is using this as an opportunity to work with him. I wish Michael all the best as he deals with his addiction.