I would like to announce our Postpartum Progress Beacon of Hope for May and June (drumroll please): Wendy Davis. She is as deserving as one could possibly be to be recognized for all her many contributions to the women who suffer perinatal mood disorders. In addition to maintaining a private practice as a therapist, she has been deeply, deeply involved as a volunteer for many years. Wendy writes:
"I got a crash course in postpartum mood disorders when I fell into one after the birth of our first child in 1994. I had no idea there was a name for what I was experiencing; the names I gave it at the time were 'failure' and 'mistake'. I thought I had just found out that I never should have been a mother. I couldn't believe that any good mother would feel such crushing dread and hopelessness. I was sinking fast and isolating myself. A dear friend convinced me to call a postpartum doula and after much resistance, I called her. She listened to my quiet request for help with the dishes, and asked me the question that saved my life: 'Have you been depressed or anxious?' It was enough to open the floodgates and I felt that I was confessing to her. She came over the next day and sat with me for hours while I cried, leaving me with some excellent articles about PPD and recovery and a promise that she would be back the next day.
"As soon as I understood that I had postpartum depression and anxiety, I was astonished that I had never learned of it. I had already been a therapist for 14 years and I had never had a class or workshop on the subject. At first I was angry. Then I got busy. I was compelled to learn all I could and to talk to anyone who would listen about postpartum suffering and recovery. My own experience led me to develop a mom-to-mom support network here in Portland, Oregon, called Baby Blues Connection. It has been going strong for 12 years now and I am so grateful and proud of having been part of this resource. I continue to serve as their clinical consultant and coordinate the volunteer training team.
"I also became a member of PSI, and then a support coordinator for Oregon in 1998. I have seen this organization develop so much, and have become more and more involved. In 2005, I agreed to be the Coordinator for the Support Coordinators around the world and then I joined the PSI board. This has been an amazing organization to work with. The volunteers are passionate, knowledgable and caring and the board members are extremely sensitive and hard-working. Jane Honikman was a wonderful mentor to me.
"I know that every voice of truth can make change for the better, and that it doesn't take that much for women and their partners to feel heard, acknowledged and cared for. I know that PSI's advocacy will make a difference in the lives of mothers, their partners and their children. I remember how much it helped me to have people around who knew what I was going through, who encouraged me when I wanted to give up and who trusted in me. I adore my son and my daughter (after whose birth I had no PPD) and I just wish that I had been able to see that I was bonding with my son all along.
Wendy's volunteer work also includes writing magazine articles, as well as appearing on documentaries, radio shows and local news reports providing her expert opinion and commentary. She is also a frequent public speaker, AND, she was pleased to be asked by the Oregon Department of Health & Human Services to write a page on perinatal mood disorders for a booklet given to all new moms in Oregon.
She is proud that she spoke up with honesty and heart, and that she is able to provide a picture of hope to others. She is also very proud of the work she has done nurturing new volunteers, and being able to connect frightened moms and their families and friends with so many resources around the world. She is a perfect example of the power of speaking up, of working together with people and asking for help.
Her biggest concern these days is that people have too much of a little information, and become afraid that PPD is always dangerous. (Thanks in part, I think, to the sensationalization of TV news and the tendency for them to only discuss perinatal mood disorders when there is an infanticide). She says this is part of what causes women to feel panicky and suicidal. She wants people to know that these illnesses are always treatable. She would ultimately like to see pregnancy and postpartum mood disorders discussed in 6th grade health class, and revisited in childbirth education classes and providers' offices. She wants people to understand that symptoms of depression, anxiety, mania and psychosis are common, treatable and faultless.
"I want people to understand what my son understood when he was only 10. He got on the phone with my friend who had just had a baby, and said to her in the most sweet and loving voice, 'If you are having any sad or bad feelings, that is okay. And just remember, when you think you're not being a good mom, you usually are.' I was very, very proud of him and of all the work we have done."
Wendy, you are a wonderful and clearly loving human being and we are lucky that you are one of us and have dedicated so much of yourself to our cause. Congratulations!!
