Educating mamas-to-be one story at a time

I think of mental illness the same way I view cancer. It can strike anyone at anytime. For me, the time came at the age of twenty-six. I was blindsided. Two manic episodes two weeks apart; two stays in two different psych wards at the end of 2005. If the first time...
Hope Is What We Come Looking For — Part II

Hope Is What We Come Looking For — Part II

Even though it was 18 years ago, my memory of postpartum depression and anxiety feel as fresh as if it were last week. There was a nurse in the hospital, Mardi, who cared for me in the days after Alec was born. She sensed something was wrong and checked on me at home...
Hope is What We Come Looking For

Hope is What We Come Looking For

When I was pregnant with my first child, there wasn’t a room that could contain my joy. I had been waiting my entire life to have a baby and after I saw the two pink lines on the pregnancy test stick, I walked on air.  I went to bed in the same way I woke up,...

PPD and the Abrupt End of Breastfeeding

This is the story of the night I stopped breastfeeding my oldest son and what PPD had to do with it. I haven’t really shared this whole story before. Not in its entirety, anyway. And not because it’s a hard story or particularly shameful, but rather...