Posts

How to use creativity to cope with PMADs without it taking a lot of your time or energy

 As a mother with Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorder (PMAD), you've likely consumed information about how to cope. You've probably read that rest, healthy food, water, exercise, social support and self-care are valuable and overusing…

How To Support A New Mom Who Is Struggling With Postpartum Depression

How To Support A New Mom Who Is Struggling With Postpartum Depression by Amy Stuart  A few years ago, I entered a new season of life. My friends and I left our college years behind us and established ourselves in our respective fields.…

What Pediatricians Need To Know About Postpartum Depression

Postpartum depression is the most common and serious postpartum condition, affecting 10% to 20% of mothers within the first year of childbirth.  Studies have found that up to 50% of women with PPD go undiagnosed. (Earls, MF and the Committee…

Birth Trauma

by Emma Quick It’s hard to believe that it’s been almost two years since we were anxiously awaiting our daughter’s arrival. Our second baby, but we had a different birth plan this time due to breech presentation.  My son had been born…

EMDR Therapy

EMDR & Perinatal Mental Health Written by Shannon Kane, MSW, RSW “Trauma is perhaps the most avoided, ignored, belittled, denied, misunderstood, and untreated cause of human suffering.” -Peter LevineEye Movement Desensitization…

Conversations that Count: Ask A Dad about His Journey

Conversations that Count: Ask A Dad about His Journey By Daniel Singley With International Fathers’ Mental Health Day right around the corner, I wanted to take a brief look at some of the ways that my colleagues and I have been working to…

Perinatal OCD Part II

Perinatal OCD Part II Catherine BenfieldWe’re at a point now where parents are beginning to talk openly about the impact of becoming parents on their mental health. Postnatal depression is often in the media, an awareness of postpartum…

Dear Anxiety

Dear Anxiety by Jen Smith 16 Nov 2018 Dear Anxiety:Remember when you would visit me all the time? Now I need to take a special moment to reach out and say thank you. I love you. I want to thank you for checking to make sure that…

Featured PSI Member: Heather Anne Swensen Motta

PSI Volunteer Heather Anne Swensen Motta: Climb Out of the Darkness Brazil Team Leader, Brazil CoordinatorNote: There are many types of perinatal mental health disorders, and at times a range of unexpected consequences. This interview makes…

Dads mental health

by Mark Williams for the PSI Blog June 17, 2018 I was one of those people who was completely uneducated about depression until it came knocking at my door in 2004. It wasn't until my wonderful wife, Michelle, went through an emergency C-section…

Men and Postnatal Mental Illness

Men and Postnatal Mental Illness by Dr Andrew Mayers 14 June 2018 Over the past few years, there has been an increase in awareness about maternal mental illnesses, including postnatal depression, postpartum psychosis, maternal obsessive-compulsive…

Featured PSI Member: Dr. Kendra Flores-Carter

Dr. Kendra Flores-Carter is a maternal child and pediatric clinical social worker for university-affiliated teaching hospital Arrowhead Regional Medical Center (ARMC) in Colton, California. Currently teaching at California State University San…

Freeing Myself

Freeing Myself from My Negative Perceptions in the Postpartum By MJ Golias for the PSI Blog April 6, 2018I don’t “just let go” of anything; I analyze, then analyze some more. Many, including my husband, say that the “why” doesn’t…

Climb 2018

Join Us! Climb Out of the Darkness 2018 The Climb Out of the Darkness 2018 is beginning! This is the sixth year that survivors will share their personal experiences with perinatal mental illness. Some of us have been sharing our stories for…

A Letter to the OCD Momma

A Letter to the OCD Momma By Chelsea Elker for the PSI Blog February 8, 2018To the mom who suffers OCD in silence: I see you. To the mom who spends all of her "me" time crying into her pillow: I get it. To the mom whose eyes dart…