Tag Archives: postpartum depression

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.

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)

Astounding Testimony of Postpartum Experience

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Over at The Prodigal, Dave Loveless has been doing a Mental Illness series. Yesterday’s post was a rather detailed and honest account of a Mormon Mom’s experience with Postpartum Depression, including how her faith affected her recovery. I would strongly recommend reading it but do warn that it is graphic and long.

Cultural Traditions and PPD

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Knowing what we do about PPD risk factors including lack of social support and financial struggles, I have begun to wonder if Cultural Celebrations and support of new mothers has an impact on whether or not she experiences Postpartum Depression. As I researched for this morning’s Did You Know piece for the blog, I came across a fascinating article that brought an important point to the forefront of my mind. Many other cultures do celebrate the birth of a child and motherhood but what do we do for new moms here in America? Nothing. The child is born and then bam. Out the door into the cold world goes mom – struggling not only with the physiological effects of childbirth but also the psychological effects, including the sudden shift of attention from her (as the pregnant woman) to the newborn infant. She is pushed aside and left behind. Why is it we do this? How has this happened? The article I read suggested the American Job Market has effectively dismantled the family dynamic through the need for relocation related to employment and thereby denigrated the opportunity continued guidance and support from immediate family members – ie, the passing down of child-rearing knowledge and support from mother to daughter. I myself have been a victim of this very phenomenom as I moved nearly 400 miles away from my family to find work. I do call my mother quite a bit but it is no substitute for in-person care and guidance. There needs to be a shift in American Culture to truly celebrate the mother as well as the child after birth. An increase in coverage by insurance companies to pay for doula care after the birth of a child, making standard designing a plan of postpartum care within the constructs of the OB or pre-natal visits. We are so conditioned to prepare for the BABY we have forgotten to prepare for our care. We cannot afford to do this any longer.

A Peek into the Darkness

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Instead of posting an interview today, I want to share a piece of me with you. Yes, I know I’ve been doing that already but this is deeper and darker. You see, I found my journal from my first Postpartum experience. I shared a brief piece of this with a mom who contacted me the other day and it resonated so strongly with her and made me realize I need to share this openly. Keep in mind that I sought and was refused help at the three month mark – the first entry I share is from her 3 month birthday. So here goes.

July 26, 2004

Today is Allison’s 3 month birthday. I can’t believe we’ve made it 3 months. 1/4 of the way to a year. I’m still exclusively breastfeeding her. I’ve had to give her formula twice – once, the night she came home because she just wouldn’t take the breast, the second time she was being extremely fussy and wouldn’t eat. I couldn’t let my baby starve.

Wow. 3 months of life with a baby. And I am still feeling like I’ve been hit over the head with a frying pan. Sure there are glorious glimpses of normalcy and happiness but mostly I stare at the clutter, worry about our bills, get upset at the dogs for waiting until Alli has latched on to let me know they need to go O-U-T and they gotta go NOW. And Chris has had this kidney stone problem since she was about a month old. That’s been fun. He’ll be having surgery on Wednesday so now I’m worrying about that bill too.

In case you can’t tell, today was one of those days. I called my mom this morning. She answers the phone and asks if she can call me back. But the way she asks sounds like she’s crying. So I freak out and think something horrid has happened to my kid brother who’s in jail. Turns out it was just a laugh that I misinterpreted.

Then later today I’ve attempted to put Alli in her crib for a nap but she’s not napping – no – she’s screaming. And Chris flippantly comments (and I quote) “Geez, you’d think someone was killing her!” THANKS! I’m already having a hard enough time listening to her cry and now you go and put the very image I struggle every day to keep out at the very forefront of my mind. I rush through the rest of the dishes and go to comfort my crying daughter. She did eventually nap – in her swing for about 30 minutes. It gave me enough time to get caught up with Thank You notes. I had gotten just a little behind. Now we just need stamps. Gotta wait until we have a spare $7.40 though. Maybe next week.

Allison did get a couple of presents in the mail today. She got a cute little outfit from her great-aunt’s friend and two books from my deceased step-mother’s sister. There was a very touching note in the card stating that Grandpa Cam & Grandma Helen would have loved having a great grandaughter. I’m sure they know. This little girl has quite an army of angels looking out for her.

My hand is hurting from writing so much. I’d better go. Don’t know how much longer I’ll be awake for. I’m exhausted and my neck & shoulders are killing me. I’ll write again when I can. Thanks for listening.

July 30, 2004

I put my underwear on inside out this morning. Should have paid attention to that sign. It was a really shitty day emotionally. Alli and I did just fine for the most part – until lunch. We met Chris’ parents at Golden Dragon – and Greg & Cindy were there. GRRRRR. I was not in social butterfly mode and really not up to faking it. We sat down and then Mom offered to watch Alli while we got our food. I came back, set my blate down and went to get some soup. Mom’s sitting there talking to some friend of the family in my seat and doesn’t move so I can sit down and friggin eat. So she finally moves and I sit down. Of course Alli immediately starts to fuss and I have to soothe her with my right hand and try to eat with my left. ARGH. She got fussier and fussier. I had to leave after about 4 forkfuls. So I drive her home (she of course, FALLS ASLEEP halfway home) On the way home I was both relieved and pissed off. Relieved because she saved me from having to be social; pissed off because I didn’t get to eat. She woke up as soon as we got home and I fed her. Called my mom and cried. I was/am so completely emotionally exhausted that the prospect of a busy afternoon was absolutely overwhelming. Oh, and the doctor’s office called to reschedule my appt yet again on monday with the psychologist. So  told them that I just wanted to cancel the appt. Obviously they aren’t a reliable source of help for this sort of thing.

After I finished feeding Alli, Grandmama showed up. Once Chris and Mom got home, I just collasped. I ate, then I came into the bedroom and layed down.  I remember staring at the wall – just laying there trying to feel something – anything. I didn’t even go say goodbye to Grandmama. I didn’t have the strength. I think Chris is really starting realize how much of a toll all of this is taking on me. He let me sleep from 3-345p and then Alli needed to nurse.

The good part of this day was that once we put Alli to bed, we went and saw Spiderman II with Greg & Cindy. Was nice to get out and do something with other adults, even if it was just sitting in a dark theatre and watching a movie.

Chris is asleep next to me at the moment and our legs are intertwined. Well, they were. He just moved. I love him so much. I hate that he has to see me go through this but I’m also glad he’s the one I’m with – I know he will do anything to help and I really need that right now.

I’m pretty tired and my back and neck are still pretty sore. I better go to sleep – it’s the only time I don’t feel the pain.