Katherine Stone

Katherine Stone is the founder of Postpartum Progress, is a nationally-recognized peer advocate for women who suffer mental illnesses related to pregnancy & childbirth, and is also a parenting writer for Strollerderby. She was named one of the ten most influential mom bloggers of 2011 by Babble, and also as one of WebMD's Health Heroes.

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Antidepressants vs. The Placebo Effect: Whether SSRIs Really Work

By Katherine Stone February 22, 2012 7 Comments

This past Sunday, CBS’ 60 Minutes aired a segment on antidepressants being no better than placebo. Harvard researcher and author Irving Kirsch says antidepressants do not work because of the ingredients inside them or any effect they have on serotonin, but because we believe we’ll get better when we take them. We could just as easily be taking a sugar pill, without knowing it, and we’d get the same effect, he argues.

If you saw the story, you might be feeling very confused right now. Even Lesley Stahl, who reported the story and whose husband takes an antidepressant, said she was confused. Kirsch and others interviewed were very confident that SSRIs don’t have the impact that pharmaceutical companies would have us believe.

I take one. It seems like it works for me. Yet does it really? Am I just fooled into believing it works?

John Grohol, editor-in-chief of Psych Central, responded, “What wasn’t mentioned in the 60 Minutes piece, because it was opinion journalism forwarding a specific viewpoint, is that Kirsch’s research is selective. He hasn’t looked at every antidepressant study ever done (now numbering in the thousands). He only looked at the clinical trials required to gain U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for 6 antidepressant drugs (there are over a dozen on the market).”

I reached out for input from Dr. Marlene Freeman of the Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Women’s Mental Health for input as it applies to women with postpartum depression — well, everyone really, but my focus is women with postpartum depression — and I want you to see her response. It really helped me to understand the placebo effect better and why people like Hirsch make the claims they make: [Read more...]

February 22, 2012 10:15 am Filed Under: Medication and Postpartum Depression, Treatment

Upcoming Postpartum Depression Trainings & Things You Need to Know

By Katherine Stone February 20, 2012 Leave a Comment

There are a lot of postpartum depression events, goings on, happenings and newsy things flying into my inbox these days so I wanted to give everyone an update:

Postpartum Support Virginia is the beneficiary of two upcoming LUNAFEST events. LUNAFEST is a traveling film festival of short films by, for and about women. If you attend either one of the screenings, you will help support PSVa, which helps women in Virginia with postpartum depression. The first is on Wednesday, March 7 in Arlington at the Arlington Cinema n’ Drafthouse, and the second is on Sunday, March 11, in Charlottesville at the University of Virginia. To get more information or purchase a ticket, click here.
Pec Indman, Ed.D., LMFT, will be doing a 6-hour training called “Maternal Mental Health: Assessment and Treatment of Prenatal and Postpartum Mood and Anxiety Disorders” on March 9th at Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, CA (near San Jose airport). CEUs and CEs are available. To learn more or register, click here.
I will be speaking at South by Southwest Interactive on March 13th in Austin, TX, with a panel of fabulous people, including Beerly Robertson who heads social media for the March of Dimes. We will be talking about utilizing social media to benefit nonprofits and social good.
Eliot Hospital is hosting a perinatal depression conference on the evening of Thursday, April 5th, at SERESC in Bedford, New Hampshire. The keynote speaker will be Marlene Freeman, MD, of the Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Women’s Mental Health. CEUs will be available. To learn more or register, click here.
Postpartum Support International is hosting a Reproductive Psychiatry seminar and its Perinatal Mood & Anxiety Disorder 2-Day Training in Las Vegas from June 27-30th. You can attend either or both events, plus some other neat things that are going on. To get more information or to register, click here.
Karen Kleiman, author and founder of the Postpartum Stress Center, will be hosting several of her 10-hour postgraduate training events on postpartum depression throughout 2012. All of them are held in her offices in Rosemont, PA. To learn more, click here.

Also, very important: the Perinatal Depression Information Network is seeking people/organizations who provide mental health services or conduct perinatal mental health research to share information in a short survey. You will be invited to describe your clinical, research, or community-based perinatal mental health program. The Perinatal Depression Information Network (PDIN) (www.pdinfonetwork.org) is a new and dynamic electronic resource that collects and organizes information on perinatal depression and mental health at the state and local level, including programs, services, materials and contacts. The PDIN provides a growing knowledge base of initiatives in the United States and its territories – creating an online community of public and private resource partners to share information, promote innovative and effective practices in the field, and enhance interdisciplinary collaboration. It will eventually expand to include other countries. The PDIN creates a forum to bring together maternal, child, and mental health providers, leaders, researchers, and families to address perinatal depression and its significant threat to the well-being of mothers and their families.

The online survey will take you about 10 minutes to complete. You will be asked questions about your clinical practice(s), research program(s), and/or regional perinatal mental health initiatives and the populations they serve. The PDIN staff will populate the Perinatal Depression Information Network website with the information you provide so that primary care providers and women struggling with perinatal mental health issues can find suitable practitioners or participate in perinatal mental health research. To begin the survey, click on this link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/533NZT2.

Some of the information obtained from the survey and website will be used for presentations and descriptive studies. This information was determined “not human research” by Colorado Multiple Institutional Review Board (COMIRB) because it is factual (concerning practices, services, and research), and is not information about subjects.

And, a couple of new pieces of research:

Relative impact of maternal depression and associated risk factors on offspring psychopathology, British Journal of Psychiatry

Anxiety, depression and stress in pregnancy: implications for mothers, children, research and practice, Current Opinion on Psychiatry

Rates and predictors of depression in adoptive mothers, Advances in Nursing Science

February 20, 2012 10:50 am Filed Under: Postpartum Depression

Postpartum Depression Survivor Series, Day 5: Coming Together Around A New Baby

By Katherine Stone February 17, 2012 6 Comments

Seven women who had survived postpartum depression and anxiety all became pregnant around the same time and decided to support each other using social media and email as they navigated a pregnancy and childbirth after PPD. We have featured all seven this week in a special 5-part Postpartum Depression Survivor Series. Today is part 5, and shares a conversation the group had after one of the group members, Grace, delivered her baby boy.

Deborah: Welcome, readers, to a real-life conversation that our group had over the course of 24 hours when one of us delivered a baby boy last Fall …

Grace: Hi ladies. I just wanted to take a couple minutes to drop in. RM was born on Monday morning via scheduled cesarean. Two nights in the hospital – went well, I was feeling great! Yesterday we came home and had a wonderful afternoon and first night together as a family of four. Today at about 1pm is when I started to break down. I know it’s normal to be a puddle of tears, but of course I worry and fear what couldcome. I’ve been unable to stop crying for about three hours straight. So, please just keep us in your thoughts and prayers! Again, I know this is normal first week postpartum stuff. But still … Most of what I feel is grief — missing my one and only, worrying about what I’ve given up forever, grieving the loss of our family as it was, etc. Feeling overwhelmed, worried, and scared that I could lose it at any point. Anyway, here’s to a good night’s sleep and starting fresh in the morning!!!

Deborah: Congratulations! I’m thinking of you. Not sure where you are on the medication front, but I really believe that taking my medication made a huge difference for me with DG along with getting sleep. I know this is never an easy choice. Love to talk with you about it if that is ever helpful. Take care!

Amber: Amen to what Deborah said. I chose to give up breastfeeding (per my contingency plan, though such a difficult decision) and go on my meds when I had that hormone crash. In hindsight, I might have been able to combo-feed so I didn’t have to completely dry up, but I try not to live in hindsight. You will be okay… either way. If I chose to have a number three, the thing I would focus most on is balancing how much I could take during the “wait and see if this is just bad baby blues or postpartum depression and anxiety again” phase versus being proactive and pulling the trigger on full attack treatment for PPD. I think everyone has a different capacity and can move forward with a plan without regret at a different point. Praying for you … call me day or night.

Amy: So excited to get your email announcement! This time has got to be hard – the wondering. I will be keeping you in my prayers, that you would feel good, get the sleep you need and get to know your boys together. Blessings and hugs to you!

Suzanne: I’ve been thinking about you so much, Grace. Sending lots of good vibes. I stayed on my medication throughout pregnancy and postpartum. I had to increase my dose a few weeks after S arrived because I felt that familiar crashing. It worked. And I was able to continue breastfeeding (which I was ready to stop doing and nearly did almost every day). I think my self-awareness got me through. And I see that very same thing in you. And I promise (PROMISE) that the feelings of grief over your firstborn and your family of three, while intense, will go away. I was devastated. And now I can’t imagine our family any differently than it is right this very moment. Please keep in touch! Thank you for reaching out. That’s why we’re here.

Amber: I completely agree with Suzanne. I CANNOT imagine life without L2 for even a second. I literally just talked with Katherine about this very thing … that somehow, as crazy as it sounds, I actually love my first child more (not less) after having another. It’s like my heart doubled in size or something. Sure, managing #2 and giving #1 time to grow into having a sibling is challenging, but seeing the beautiful relationship blossom is amazing. And you may not, but even if you do have some PPD again it will never be like the first time because you are so well-armed. We are all here for you and have different perspectives and experiences to offer with the common goal of supporting each other. I am so glad you reached out. I hope we all will give ourselves and each other that continuing self-care.

Yuz: Congratulations – what lovely news!!!!!! I’m so happy for you. Sorry you’re feeling low at the moment, but hopefully this will pass and it will be what people call the ‘normal baby blues’. Whatever you decide to do with your meds, just an FYI that I stayed on meds throughout my pregnancy and am still on it. I was advised by many to ‘see how you go’, but I just didn’t want to take the chance. See how you go and do what you think is the right thing for you, but my advice is not to stop taking your meds if you’ve started them (or stayed on them during your pregnancy).

I totally get where you’re coming from going from a family of three to four. I felt completely guilty when I had to be admitted to hospital early and leave O at home for that. I felt as if I was choosing one child over another and I didn’t even know this other child yet! BUT and wait for it, you have just given your toddler the best gift ever. And watching your two kids get to know each other and begin to interact with each other is one of the most AMAZING moments in your life and a reminder as to why you went down the path again. And when your toddler kisses, cuddles or holds the baby’s hand, ahhhh, get ready for it my friend, it’s awesome.

For now, just take one day at a time. Getting used to having and caring for two kids is a massive adjustment. It’s not easy. Be kind to yourself and give yourself the space to go through your motions and emotions. Please stay in touch as these first few weeks are tough for anyone, not just us PPD mamas.

Grace: Thank you everyone -Your words have helped so much! I stayed on medication my whole pregnancy and will continue to. It’s nice knowing the option is there to increase if I feel I need to in coming weeks/months. Last Thursday was awful, but I managed to re-group and things have been better since. Positive self-talk is so important! Last night was rough – babe up for hours it seemed, I was bleary eyed and exhausted. This morning I felt despair briefly – but I know, I KNOW that tonight will be better. My three year old, is back at preschool today (we had a two-week vacation, city-wide) and my husband is back at work. Just me and R at home, which I was sort of dreading last week, but today I’m trying to embrace the beauty of it. Thank you for your support, I’ll keep checking in! Hope all are doing well. Happy Halloween grace

Grace: Update: things are going much better! I think my hormones have leveled out for the most part and the intense crying episodes have hopefully ended… I haven’t cried since Thursday

My parents are here now for two weeks and that has been a very helpful distraction!One thing that has been my saving grace is going to bed really early with R (usually between 7:30 and 8!). It helps me to get a longer stretch of sleep at the beginning of the night so that I don’t completely lose it by the wee morning when he tends to be more fussy and needy.It’s been freeing to just remain in the present, only focusing on one day at a time. Sounds simple but it’s been very important for me in just these short weeks. My anxiety is triggered when I over analyze and get too far ahead of myself, so I’m practicing shutting off those thoughts and just staying present. How is everyone else doing? Thank you all for the support, advice, kind words, it all helps sooo much!

Amber: Thanks Deborah for organizing this last of our week-long posts and to all of you for sharing your experiences so publicly. I know that it will help others so much to better understand how having a baby after experiencing a PMAD is not only possible, but that often the experience can be better than you imagined. I also hope that the unique aspects of our experiences and plans, as well as effective treatments will speak to moms and let them know that while there is not one magic fix to these awful disorders that they are treatable, knowing that we all fully recovered and found lots of self-awareness and gratification in that process.

Thanks, also to Katherine to allowing us to share our stories at Postpartum Progress, a source of reliable information and support for each of us, and therefore a special “place” for us. And, most of all, thanks to all of you Survivor Mamas for reading. Best wishes for a future filled with promise and peace.

Editor’s note: I have so much gratitude for Amber, Grace, Suzanne, Kate, Amy, Deborah and Yuz for sharing their experiences and wisdom here all week. Way to go Warrior Moms! I hope you have enjoyed this series as much as I have! ~ Katherine

February 17, 2012 9:15 am Filed Under: Postpartum Depression

Postpartum Survivor Series Day 4: What Happened After The Next Baby

By Katherine Stone February 16, 2012 26 Comments

Postpartum depression survivor series day four focuses in on when our seven Warrior Moms made the decision to have another child and what that experience was like …

Amber: Today, I invite you all to share with readers about your experience with pregnancy, adoption or trying to conceive or adopt after postpartum depression.Suzanne: With my second baby, I developed antenatal depression, which, believe it or not, surprised me. My first pregnancy was wonderful. My second one was awful. I was sick the entire time and became so depressed by the five month mark that I decided to get help. I started on a new medication that I was told was safe for pregnancy (I had stopped my other medication for the first trimester), and I was able to keep taking it — and safely breastfeed — during the postpartum period.

Grace: We were so terrified of having another baby. It took probably six months to convince my husband that we could do it. I know he agreed for my sake – we both knew that having another child was crucial to my full healing. I said to my husband the other day that our first son made us parents & our second son healed us.

We made the decision together that I would stay on my antidepressant throughout my pregnancy and postpartum period. My pregnancy was completely uneventful, which I am so very thankful for. I am a ceasarean mom, and we decided to go for a repeat cesarean so as not to trigger any anxiety. It was the right decision for us. [Read more...]

February 16, 2012 9:10 am Filed Under: Postpartum Depression

Postpartum Depression Survivor Series Day Three: The Husbands

By Katherine Stone February 15, 2012 11 Comments

And now day three of our special postpartum depression survivor series on having more children …

Amber: Let’s talk about our families today. What was the birth order of your “postpartum depression baby”? For me, I was a first-time mom so I had no idea what to expect physically, emotionally or practically … nothing to compare it to. I kept asking myself, “is this NORMAL???” If you are married or partnered, what about your spouse/significant other? How did it affect them? How can one be helpful in the midst of postpartum depression?

Suzanne: I also suffered with my first baby. The most challenging thing during that time with my spouse was the tremendous burden he had to bear. On most days, he’d be in one room trying to console our screaming baby while I was in the other room sobbing. Neither of us knew what was wrong with me. I don’t think he fully understood my condition until I felt better and was able to function more normally. We were in survival mode for those first few months; it redefined our relationship and made us stronger.

Deborah: I also experienced a perinatal mood disorder after my first. My husband never acted like I did something wrong in terms of causing my postpartum OCD and really embraced this as the disease it is, requiring all sorts of treatments, from medicine to therapy to sleep. This gaze on me and my disease in the middle of my crisis was a godsend in terms of not adding to my stress.

Yuz: Like both of you, I too fell ill after my first baby. I felt so much confusion and anger – I had no confidence as a mother or with my daughter. I felt like a fraud. I felt like a failure as a mother. I felt as if I had failed her. I felt as if I had ‘ruined’ her emotionally due to our lack of bond and, sadly, because I often regretted having her at all. I wanted to have her adopted out. I felt ashamed for feeling everything I felt and for everything I thought. I just didn’t want to have to admit this to anyone that wouldn’t understand why I was thinking and feeling all these things, and frankly I didn’t see the point in telling them as I couldn’t see how it could have helped me or made the situation better in any way. [Read more...]

February 15, 2012 9:30 am Filed Under: Help for Fathers, Postpartum Depression

Postpartum Depression Survivor Series: Day Two

By Katherine Stone February 14, 2012 5 Comments

Welcome to day two of our postpartum depression survivor series on having more children …

Amber: Our little group was formed because we are all Warrior Moms. What form of perinatal mood or anxiety disorder did you suffer from and what were your symptoms?

Deborah: I suffered from postpartum OCD, which took the form of intrusive thoughts that involved images of harming my baby. It started out with racing thoughts a few days after my son was born, consisting of all the horrible things that I could potentially do to harm my newborn baby and quickly descended into a never ending loop of images that I could harm him. Scary scenes from movies I had seen decades ago would also race through my mind. I was in one big playback loop of fear and there was a tangible, biological response happening in my whole body, which I think was some sort of panic attack.

Yuz: I thought I had my bases covered in anticipation for postpartum depression while I was pregnant. I have a history of depression and anxiety and started seeing a psychiatrist specializing in mother and baby attachment in case I needed it following the birth. [Read more...]

February 14, 2012 9:30 am Filed Under: Postpartum Anxiety, Postpartum Depression

7 Postpartum Depression Survivors Share Their Stories Of Having More Children

By Katherine Stone February 13, 2012 20 Comments

This week we’re doing a special five-part series featuring seven mothers who survived postpartum depression or a related illness and went on to have more children. The series was put together by Amber Koter-Puline, and will feature input from these mothers on their experiences. I know you’re going to love this:

Welcome to our world. The world of survivors of perinatal mood and anxiety disorders, like postpartum depression, who have decided to have more children. Some of us are well down the path with those additions, and others are waiting. You’ll learn more about that later. For now, I invite you to sit back, relax, maybe even grab a cup of tea and meet the women who changed my life…

Amy Brannan
http://www.livinglifejoyously.blogspot.com/Amy has a four-and-a-half-year-old daughter and is working on adopting the next. She and her husband have been married for five years and live in Washington State.Here’s Amy, in her words:
I never had any symptoms until my daughter was five months old. I went to numerous doctors because I knew something was “off” but no one mentioned postpartum depression ever and that is the hardest thing for me to still accept. I finally started doing my own research and found a website about PPD – I had every symptom listed. My husband and I went to my doctor and I was finally diagnosed with postpartum depression and anxiety with OCD tendencies in 2008. I started counseling and medication when my baby was ten months old – this continued for 2.5 years. In late 2010, I wasn’t getting better or at least felt like I was stuck, like I was almost over the last hurdle. I was encouraged to start seeing a psychiatrist and she helped tremendously.I also began to diligently start seeking out women who have/had postpartum depression which was when I found PPD blogs and finally started seeing the light at the end of the tunnel so to speak. Facebook, PPDChat and this group of survivor moms saved my life and my sanity and allowed me to accept what is now my testimony in hopes to help others. I also started my own PPD survivor’s blog, to start writing as a way of healing for me. I still battle anxiety and depression that was brought on by the PPD but it is no longer PPD. We have chosen to not get pregnant again because of the severity of my postpartum depression so we are on the waiting list of adopting our next baby! That in itself was the hardest decision to make – choosing not to become pregnant again and feeling like I was broken, no good, choosing second best and a failure.I’d like to assure women that everyone will have a different journey and every woman will have different symptoms. I’d like to encourage women that they are not damaged or different, that they are not failures as moms or wives. Guilt can be a very damaging aspect of PPD – I am proof of that. I’d like to share some thoughts on choosing “not” to become pregnant after PPD again and how women make that decision. I really needed to read about that and I found very little last year when I was struggling the most over this.

I hope to be able to reach women like me who found help when they thought they had reached the end. Women who don’t know what is wrong with them and feel alone. I want to offer support and encouragement to their families, especially their husbands. I would not have made it if it weren’t for my incredible husband and his support and love.

Deborah Rimmler
Deborah is a married mom to two boys.

Meet Deborah:
In this series, I would like to share what we as a group and individually found that worked to help create a new postpartum experience for us and our families. I hope we’ll reach any moms thinking of having a baby after postpartum. Kind of like those who have successfully had a vaginal birth after c-section or VBAC. We are the “BAPPD” (Baby After PPD) survivors with a positive message. [Read more...]

February 13, 2012 9:33 am Filed Under: Postpartum Depression

Smell the Burnt Toast: Coming Together in A Postpartum Depression Support Group

By Katherine Stone February 9, 2012 4 Comments

Today’s guest on Postpartum Progress is Gabrielle Kaufman. Gabrielle is a dance therapist, a postpartum depression support group leader, and one of the California coordinators for Postpartum Support International:

Each week I have the blessing of being present while new mothers gather in solidarity over postpartum depression. They may not see it that way, but I do. Bravely, they enter a room full of strangers when they are feeling their worst and most vulnerable to bare their souls. The courage it takes to risk so much when feeling so powerless, anxious, hopeless, and defeated touches me deeply. The mothers in the New Moms Connect group have chosen to come because they are searching for a way to feel better. Loneliness, panic, isolation, confusion and deep sadness are their companions and coming to group is a way to look for better company.

When a woman has a chance to share her story of postpartum depression, she often looks down. Her voice quiets and tears stream down her face. “It wasn’t supposed to be this way!” “I tried so hard to have her and now I just want to run away.” “What if I wasn’t meant to be a mom? Maybe he’d just be better off without me.” “I don’t love him, what’s wrong with me?” Statements like these are not openly expressed in most civilized settings. But when a women struggling with postpartum depression feels comfortable enough to expose these feelings in a group, they often evoke a strange combination of shame and relief followed by a moment of silence. This silence is not due to shock or horror at hearing these words. On the contrary, it comes from the realization by the other women in the room that they had once felt very much the same. Remembering that dark time may be excruciating, and may also serve as a reminder of how far they have come or maybe it comes from a fear of what might have been lost had they not sought help.

Today, I was able to witness the power of community again. Elena came to group for the first time. She could barely say her name before sobbing. “I am not sure I will make it through each day. I am so anxious and sad.” The women in the group listened with no judgment, only compassion. As her story of postpartum depression and anxiety unfolded, her new peers offered warm support and I witnessed some of their eyes welling up. “I felt just like you do. I sometimes hate that I needed to stop breastfeeding. I needed to take medication. But, I feel better now.” Elena looked around the room for the first time, “I have been looking for a group like this for months!”

The women offered up their struggles and coping skills. Traci showed a calendar, “I learned to write down one thing a day. When I am lonely, I look to see what I have on the calendar and it calms me.” Susan shared, “I learned the phrase ‘fake it ‘til you make it’ and somehow, it got me through.” Amy, who is often the most composed said, “Sometimes I feel like I am taking so many medications for postpartum depression and I hate myself for it. But I am better than I was, and I want to be a better mom, so I do it.” Michelle said, “When people offer to help, take them up on it!” Rita said, “I pick up the phone to call ANYONE just to have an adult conversation.”

I heard Elena breathe for the first time. “But I have one question that no one can seem to answer for me. How do you know if you are better?” I bit my tongue. Women always ask me this or ask how long it will take to get better. I have no crystal ball to look through and I am aware how frightening it is to feel overpowered by postpartum depression and anxiety. My only tool is my faith in the power to heal.

Fortunately, today, I didn’t need to speak. Amy spoke up first: “It happened gradually for me. I was feeling bad one day and I realized that I had actually felt better the day before. When I was at my worst point, I was thinking of killing myself. If I had one good day, it was an improvement.” Michelle piped in, “I finally really wanted to be with my baby. I knew I was better.” Then, Traci said, “Burnt toast!” The group all stopped to look at her. Our curiosity piqued, she clarified, “One day, several months after my baby was born, I began to weep because I had burned toast. I told myself, ‘I can’t do anything right. I can’t even make toast right.’ But my husband came up to me and said, ‘Yes, you burned toast. But when you were really depressed, you didn’t do anything. At least today, you tried to make toast. Tomorrow you will make it without burning it.’” What impressed me most about Traci’s story was that she was able to receive the positive comments from her husband. And what I noticed in Elena’s eyes was a slight lifting. “Elena, maybe you are better than you think.” Susan said, “You made it here today, didn’t you?” Yes, indeed, she did.

Each week, as women return to group, come for the first time, and open up, I bare witness. Postpartum depression is real, but so is the healing of compassion and community. The little things are not little things at all. Maybe we just have to stop and smell the burnt toast.

February 9, 2012 1:10 pm Filed Under: Postpartum Depression

Isis Parenting’s Perinatal Care Roundtable: Introducing the Panelists

By Katherine Stone February 9, 2012 2 Comments

I just wanted to share a few things about the event at which I’ll be speaking on February 15th in Boston. This is the Isis Parenting event open to physicians only, entitled “It Takes A Village: Building Connections in Perinatal Care”. First, the event has been moved from the Isis Parenting offices in Needham across the street to the Sheraton Needham because there were so many interested in attending.

Second, the event is a roundtable discussion and features an entire panel of speakers and I wanted to share who my fellow panelists are:

Adam Wolfberg, MD, MPH, Perinatologist, Tuft’s Medical Center’s Mother & Infant Research Institute, Huffington Post
Gene Declerq, PhD, Assistant Dean, BU School of Public Health, Maternal & Child Health Research & Advocacy
Anjali Kaimal, MD, MS, Maternal Fetal Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital
Lise Johnson, MD, Director, Well Newborn Nurseries at Brigham & Women’s Hospital
Rachel Klein, Senior Analyst, Women’s Health Service Line Innovation, The Advisory Board Company
Mary McKendry, VP Clinical Affairs, Network Health, MA Special Legislation Commission on Postpartum Depression
Lisa Ehle, State Director of Program Services, March of Dimes, MA Chapter
Moderator: Bonnell Glass, RN, MN, Principal, The Center for Perinatal Practice

I’m so excited to be able to meet all of these people, and more, in person. And don’t forget there’s another event the next night, the 16th, that’s open to the public if you’re near Boston and would like to go. That event features … well … just me, talking about PPD.

Third, if I’m not boring you and you’ve read this far, I get the chance to go on grand rounds next Wednesday with the staff of the MGH Center for Women’s Mental Health. Woohoo! So, if you’ve got questions you’d like me to ask of some top experts on perinatal depression and anxiety, give them to me now so I’ll have them with me next week.

February 9, 2012 12:15 pm Filed Under: Postpartum Depression

Knit One Purl One, Part 2: A Story of Postpartum Depression in the 60s

By Katherine Stone February 7, 2012 17 Comments

Today we continue with part two of Gretchen Houser’s story on having postpartum depression in the 1960s:

After a few hours, the ER doctor releases me to my concerned and perplexed husband with a diagnosis of “neurasthenia.” In the 19^th century, neurasthenia was a catch-all diagnosis for certain female maladies when young married women or young mothers found themselves unable to function due to strange, unexplainable symptoms. These were pre-bi-polar, pre-agoraphobia, pre-postpartum depression days, in which most illnesses were lumped into one large, and often unexplainable category.

I am returned home, to the scene of the crime. I cry for three straight days, maybe four. My mother takes over the children and my mother-in-law Margaret arrives to help. She sits by my bed in the darkened bedroom holding my hand. She looks bewildered, keeps saying, “It’ll be alright, it’s ok.” [Read more...]

February 7, 2012 9:00 am Filed Under: Postpartum Depression