San Diego Women's Week!

PHA is proud to take part in this year's San Diego Women's Week!

Women's Week is a premier symposium with hundreds of women in leadership roles across all organizations and industries. Designed to inspire, empower and connect women executives, managers, professionals, emerging leaders, young women and social entrepreneurs. San Diego Women's Week is truly an inspiring event.

San Diego Women's Week will provide inspirational keynote speakers, host breakout forums and provide unique opportunities for all who attend. Speakers at San Diego Women's Week will focus on a variety of topics, ranging from health and fashion to business and technology. More than 5,000 visitors from the San Diego region are expected to attend the event hosted at California Center for the Arts in Escondido.

Please check out the event on Wednesday evening, when PHA will be an exhibitor, or on any of the other four days of the event. Learn more at www.sdwomensweek.com.

A New PPD Study - With a Twist

A new study was published this week that provides information about and raises awareness of a largely unrecognized problem - depression in new dads and the impact it has on their parenting.

The study, “Fathers’ Depression Related to Positive and Negative Parenting Behaviors With 1-Year-Old Children,” appears in the April issue of Pediatrics. Researchers analyzed data from 1,746 fathers of 1-year-old children and found that 7% of the fathers were depressed. Further findings show that about 40 percent of the depressed fathers reported spanking their children, versus just 13 percent of fathers who weren't depressed. The depressed fathers were also less likely to report that they regularly read to their child.

One important aspect of this study is that a whopping 77% of the depressed fathers reported having had contact with their child's pediatrician during their child's first year. As a result of this finding, The American Academy of Pediatrics concluded that "visits to the pediatrician may provide an ideal opportunity to discuss specific parenting behaviors and refer depressed fathers for appropriate treatment."

This conclusion is in line with an important project that PHA is undertaking this spring. PHA has created a new poster that calls attention to postpartum depression and anxiety and will be running a "Poster Drive" aimed at ensuring that a large number of pediatricians throughout San Diego display the poster in their offices. This will raise awareness in both providers and patients - mothers and fathers alike - increasing the chances that parental depression can be identified and treated early.

If you would like to support the PHA Poster Drive, through donations or by volunteering to deliver posters, please contact PHA at info@postpartumhealthalliance.org.

More information about the above study can be found on the American Academy of Pediatrics website at http://www.aap.org/.

10 Facts about Postpartum Depression and Anxiety

1. You will recover. You are not alone. Anyone can get postpartum depression or anxiety. It is not your fault. It is not your partner’s fault. PPD is a condition of several causes. The causes and cures are biological, emotional, cognitive, social and spiritual. You may have more stress in one or another of these areas, but full recovery should include all aspects.

2. You need regular breaks from child care. Taking breaks from the intensity of caring for your child(ren) is a necessary part of reducing your stress. It is not a luxury.

3. There is no one thing that will suddenly make PPD go away. In your recovery, you will feel better if you take regular, consistent steps of self-nurturing and accepting support. (Practical, emotional, social, psychological and spiritual).

4. You will feel better if you reach out to understanding people and express your feelings. Women who go through PPD without any support end up incorporating their negative feelings into their self-esteem as mothers. Talking to other women who have recovered from PPD is extremely helpful and effective. It is normal to feel embarrassed about your negative feelings, but it will help to have understanding listeners.

5. On the worst days, make it a rule that you will not evaluate your life. Fill your head with senses and even feelings, but leave out comparisons and judgments about your life, your partner, motherhood, your house, etc.

6. Remedies are individual and need to work for you. Remember, different people need different solutions. This applies to questions of medication, alternative therapies, sleeping arrangements, parenting styles, feeding, and what books you read. Learn what works for you.

7. You will feel better if you get outside regularly. Start small and do more as you feel better.

8. PPD/A goes in cycles. There are good days, bad days, and a lot of gray days. If you stick to a plan of self-care, breaks, support and remedies, you will keep feeling better. Don’t despair when a bad day follows a good day. It’s a natural part of the cycle. When you have a hard day after feeling better, do look at your last few days. Did you get any breaks? Did you overdo it? Stuff your feelings? Did the baby have a growth spurt? Are you expecting your period? Make a change in breastfeeding? Are you experiencing extra stress?

9. PPD does not mean you are a bad mother. Negative feelings about motherhood are a result of PPD, not a cause. When we try to make ourselves match our prenatal fantasies, we usually end up depressed. Instead, you can change your picture of motherhood to be more realistic, flexible and satisfying.

10. Your child came to live with you and needs you to be true to yourself. It is okay to have your feelings, to cry and to feel mad and frustrated and even flat nothingness. But do try and make eye contact and touch your baby. It helps if you can smile but don’t get hung up on smiling when you can’t find one inside. Take breaks when you need breaks – if not before you need one.

Courtesy of Wendy N. Davis, Ph.D.

Call for Proposals

For Professionals: Postpartum Support International is holding its 25th Annual Conference this September in Seattle. PSI is now accepting proposal abstracts. Visit www.postpartum.net for more information.

Did you know...

Postpartum Support International (PSI) hosts free, live phone sessions every week, including Wednesday chats for moms and Monday chats for dads.

During these sessions callers can talk with a PSI expert about resources, symptoms, options and general information about perinatal mood and anxiety disorders. The sessions are facilitated by licensed mental health professionals, are informational only, and open to anyone with questions and concerns.

Visit www.postpartum.net for more information.

Happy New Year

From all of us at Postpartum Health Alliance, we wish you the best for 2011!

Advice from a Mother Who Survived PPD

GET HELP! Talk to someone, anyone, but hopefully reach out to a trained professional.

Get rest when you can. Seek to take care of yourself, even if you feel like you can't lift your head off the pillow. Try to exercise and eat right, take vitamins, and if need be, find a medication that will help through the darkest times. Find the right combination that will work for you.

Try to stay active.

And try to turn any resentment you might have towards your children into a focus for being. See them as a reason to live, a reason to heal.

And let go of the anger. Under the anger is a lot of pain, but you have to peel away those layers before true healing can begin.

Remember you're not alone. Ever.

Finally, accept it. It took me a LONG time to accept that PPD invaded my life. That it changed my being. It changed who I was, who I am and why I'm here. Once you start to see light, once you start to let go and find some strength again, begin to understand that even in your darkest hour, there are things that happened that were good. Pull from those moments. Recreate the happiness PPD tried to take away. Remember the first smiles, the first steps, the first tooth, and know that once the cloud has been lifted, those memories are once again yours and no one or no disease can take those away.

Recovery from PPD long and bittersweet. Those nice memories don't come easy and you have to dig deep to find them. But they do become a defense against PPD when it tries to creep back in.

And it takes time. The scar will be there. While I no longer have PPD, I still have the scar and it will be with me forever. The key is not letting it win, not letting it debilitate you and your family, to not let it take away any more memories or minutes from your life.