It took Google seven years to create Google+, which launched last week to resounding success.
Nike, a cat from Aurora, Colorado, who has been missing for seven years after falling from his family’s balcony, was recently found.
Ronald Cabler’s Lexus, which has been at a body shop in Jacksonville, Florida, for the last seven years, will finally be ready in a few weeks.
David & Victoria Beckham had a baby girl this past weekend, and they named her Harper Seven.
Coincidence? I think not.
All this good news is a very auspicious sign, given that it was seven years ago, on July 13th, that Postpartum Progress was born. This is what we looked like then:
We’ve come a LONG WAY, baby, and I’m happy to share this anniversary with you.
Soooo … in honor of our seven-year anniversary, I will be giving away seven prizes in a random drawing. These will include a copy of the book This Isn’t What I Expected: Overcoming Postpartum Depression by Karen Kleiman, a copy of the book Postpartum Depression Demystified by Joyce Venis, a copy of the book Down Came the Rain by Brooke Shields and more … winners will be announced on Monday.
To participate, leave a comment below answering the following:
If you are a current or former suffering, how has Postpartum Progress helped you, if at all? Has it impacted any of the following — stigma, shame, willingness to get professional help, knowing where to get help, and/or general awareness and education about these illnesses?
If you are a provider, how has it impacted or supported your ability to help patients? How have you used the site to augment your practice or your work, if at all?
If you are an advocate, how have you used Postpartum Progress in your advocacy work helping other women with perinatal mood and anxiety disorders?
HAPPY BLOGIVERSARY, Y’ALL!!!!!!!!!!!
You are wonderful and what you do for so many women is wonderful! Happy Anniversary!!
Happy blogiversary, Katherine!
This blog has helped me just by existing. It's a place that is stigma-free, safe, and warm. It's helpful.
Thank you.
I currently have PPA/OCD and this site has helped me realize I am not alone and given me resources to read that are very encouraging when I am having a bad day. Thanks so much for all you do! I know when I am through this I will be able to help others and that's one of the things getting me through.
Postpartum Progress helped me make sense of what I was going through after the birth of my second son — which also put everything else in a different (better) light from my previous two pregnancies.
Love you and happy blogoversary!
I'm new to the site, have only been a reader/follower since January but I found this site when I had pretty much hit rock bottom, especially in the motherhood dept. I hadn't been officially diagnosed with PPD but reading the posts here,& reading the stories/comments of other moms helped me understand the symptoms & emotions I had been feeling & experiencing. This website led me to the Postpartum Stress Center & to some therapy sessions (where I was able to recognize that I was suffering from PPA & OCD). I had to pay for them out of pocket because my health insurance didn't cover it & eventually had to stop, BUT those sessions & this site has given me the start I desperately needed on the road to recovery. It's also introduced me to a community of mamas & bloggers who are amazingly warm & supportive! I wish I could express how grateful I am for how this site and the community here has enhanced my life & mental health-THANK YOU just doesn't seem to do it, or you, Katherine,justice. Thank you for helping me destroy my own stigmas about Postpartum mood disorders, get the help I needed, & inspiring me to tell my story & help others, especially in the faith community.
Happy Blogiversary!
Katherine, you inspired me to start my own blog, hooked me up with a therapist who I didn't see therapeutically but instead encouraged me to start the only support group currently in Atlanta, and your blog and you personally stand by my side and hold my hand through recovery, advocacy, pregnancy, childbirth, postpartum and silly mistakes I make on a daily basis. I am blessed by your blog because it is how you became my friend, mentor and colleague. xoxo
THANK YOU FOR ALL YOU DO. I cannot articulate how important or impactful every single moment of your work is.
I am an antenatal/ postpartum anxiety survivor but didn't start reading this blog until 1 1/2 years after my baby's birth. I wished I had it earlier! This blog is one of the best places I have found for info and support on post partum mood disorders. I love how I can get information, help, support, validation, connection with other moms who are suffering, and a safe place to be. I hope to one day have another baby and this blog may help me to get the guts to do so! Happy Blogiversary!
The community of support you have created here is invaluable. I was already in treatment when I discovered the blog, but made progress by leaps and bounds after I started reading it. Even my therapist noticed and asked what was different. I told her, "For the first time, I REALLY know I'm not alone."
I kept reading about these amazing women I respected – who were suffering just like me. And their struggles didn't make them any less amazing in my eyes…I started to realize that PPD didn't diminish who I was. It was just a thing happening to me. I still had value and worth.
So, like I commented on FB, "Congratuations" doesn't cover it. "Thank you" isn't enough. Bravo, Katherine. BRAVO.
Could someone hand me a tissue?
congrats chickie!!
Happy blogiversary. I'm an independent childbirth educator and I have bookmarked many links off your site for clients. I've also reposted your links on my business Facebook page. You've helped raise awareness of PPD & other postpartum issues and best of all–you've provided a safe place to get reliable info & support.
I am very new to this site. I stumbled across it a week ago. I was diagnosed with PPD and PPA nearly a month ago. This blog has really helped me and inspired me to make it through this difficult time in my life. I wasn't expecting to be blindsided by PPD and PPA since I had no issues with my first daughter. Thank you for providing the resources to help me cope and educate myself as I work through my issues in therapy and with the help of medication. I realize that I am not alone in this fight.
As a mental health care provider specializing in reproductive and perinatal mental health, I refer all of my pregnant and new mom clients to your site, and publish your links on my FB and Twitter. You've done so much to raise awareness not just for PPD, but postpartum anxiety (which is still vastly under-recognized and undertreated). THANK YOU!
Happy Blogiversary!!! I feel like I should bake a cake or something.
This blog helped me help myself when I couldn't get access to local resources. Just arming myself with information and figuring out what the freak was wrong with me was a huge step out of the darkness.
Much love to you mama!
I've been diagnosed with PPD and PPMD in May. This website gives me hope every day that I am not alone, even though my mind tells me that I am. The daily hope emails are stored in my email folder "FAITH HOPE LOVE". I look back at them often because almost all of them pertain to me and make me smile and sometimes cry (good tears, which is so nice).
This has impacted me with shame that I felt and getting awareness and education on the illness. That I've done nothing to bring this on myself. This site has saved my life, more than words can say. Thank you.
Like I said on Facebook the other day: Postpartum Progress is a cyberpresence for me and is an important part in my process with dealing with PPD.
One of my collegue (yes i'm a psychologist!) give me your internet site and it's the one that means the most to me because I feel « at the right place ».
It make me feel less alone, more « normal » and in contact (even more with Facebook) with other moms/women who knows what it is to suffer from PPD and who give me hope.
In a more concrete way, it answer my questions about PPD (it's not my expertise! well maybe it's going to become one!), was a reference for my husband to better understand what I am living and give me a direction to take better care of myself.
My little Vivianne is 7 months old and my big boy Laurent just turn 4 years old and as individuals and family I think and feel that we all deserve a happy/healty me!
When in the futur I will work in my office with clients suffering with PPD, I will surely reffer them to your site.
Merci Katherine!
(sorry again if my english is approximative)
Happy 7, Katherine and Postpartum Progress. As a survivor (and I almost can't believe that I can type that word and mean it…it was a long and often lonely almost 4 year path to that word), finding this site was a light in the dark. It is truly my support community, where I look to on hard days and even now on regular days to normalize, destigmatize that journey. Thank you for being here.
I am a brand new mother (my son is 10 weeks old) and PPD hit me like a ton of bricks right around 4 weeks (right after my husband went back to work). I have hugs issues with anxiety and OCD as well. A Facebook friend sent me your link, and I am so very glad she did. I realized that this is NOT my fault or something that I can just shake off. (My family thinks that I can just have a positive attitude and it will go away.) I am so grateful for the daily emails – I look forward to them every day! I have sent some of those emails to my husband's email, and it has helped him to understand me and it helped him to be a little more supportive.
Congratulations Katherine! It has been three months since I realized I was dealing with PPD, and along with medication and therapy, this website is helping me find my way back. If I have a bad day, I turn to this blog and am reminded that I am not alone, it is going to be okay,and I will be able to post a picture of my beautiful daughter and myself under surviving and thriving! Thank you for all that you do, including striving to make the world see that PPD is not a monster!
Happy anniversary! I discovered your site after your twitter chat with the March of Dimes. I continued coming back because it helped me make sense of that part of my experience. I have two kids, 9 and 4. After the first, I had undiagnosed and untreated PPD. I knew what it was, but I couldn't bring myself to ask for help. After my second was born (prematurely due to eclampsia and HELLP syndrome), I knew it would come back. And I knew PTSD was likely, too. I did get help early for that – but I'm revisiting it now partially out of curiosity but also because I'm still dealing with some fallout from the experience. I started a blog last month and just wrote my first post on PPD. It was hard, but it certainly feels better to acknowledge it and get support, rather than trying to shoulder that burden alone.
I am a therapist and hospital social worker. I have given out your website as a helpful resource to many many women. There's nothing else out there like it!! I feel more educated myself because of your blog and all the helpful research you post about as well as learning from the stories of all the women who post here.
CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR 7 YEARS!!!
This whole thing takes a team, Katherine. I am so admiring of you and what you have created and, truthfully, your presence always comes up in the work that I do in my little office in Boulder. So, three cheers for you.
(BTW- This comment is not an entry in your wonderful contest. I just wanted to add my 2 cents 🙂
congrats chickie!!
Happy anniversary!
As I think I've told you before, this was the first online resource I found and stuck with about PPD. I didn't even know I had it – or wasn't willing to admit it – and this got me on the right path. I still have that first email I sent you last year, and your very kind response, which I appreciated so much after reaching out on something I was scared to admit.
I'm just so grateful that you're here and that you're honest. And when you get in touch and try to help me personally I just want to hug you. So, so grateful.
Also love the daily hope – that's been a really nice daily bit of support and a reminder of what's important.
So yeah, sometimes you just keep me going. 😉
This blog helped me make the decision to start medication for my PPD. I feel like I'm not alone, that others have experienced what I am going through, and that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
I know in my fuzzy memory of the early weeks after my last baby was born, I stumbled across your blog and it was the most informative place on the web. It gave me the courage I needed to try one last time to help my husband understand the deep hole I was in, and that I needed more help than I'd ever needed before.
Lately though, finding your blog again has been a blessing and has helped me face parts of PPD that I hadn't been able to get my leg over. I am still healing, but I am so much better off. I refer people to your website as it is still one of the most helpful and informative places on the web regarding PPD, Postpartum Anxiety, and Postpartum PTSD.
PP Progress has helped me immensely by seeing that others go through the exact same thing. It felt so comforting to know I was not alone in my struggles and gave me hope when others talked of their recovery. This is a wonderful website. I feel like Im on the other side of my PPD/PPA and I now know how wonderful it feels to be a mom.
THANK YOU!!!!!!!!
Congrats & kudos to you!!!!! You are saving lives every single day! Thank you for your kind words of wisdom.
Congrats & kudos to you!!!!! You are saving lives every single day! Thank you for your kind words of wisdom.
Thanks buddy!
Love you back!
– K
So glad you were able to go to the Postpartum Stress Center, even if only for a little while. They are so great! Thank YOU for being here!
Hugs to you, friend. We're gonna kick a lot of PPD ass together.
Hi Alicia. I'm so glad you found us eventually, though I wish it had been sooner so you'd know we support you! We'll be here for you if you choose to have another baby, and even if you don't.
– K
Wow. So, like, thanks for that. That's so awesome to hear.
– K
So happy to hear it is helpful when you work with clients. I'm always hoping that providers see it as another tool in the arsenal. Thank you so much for your comment.
– K
Welcome, Jenny. I'm sorry that you are currently struggling with PPD/PPA but I'm glad you found us and feel supported. You are DEFINITELY not alone!!!
– K
Thanks Jennifer! I'm so happy to hear that! Let us know if you see ways we can improve/better things we could offer that would help your clients!
– K
Mmmm. I love cake. Much love back to you!
– K
May is not very long ago at all. You are very new to this, aren't you? I'm so happy you feel supported by the Daily Hopes. I wish I could make any and all shame disappear altogether with a magic wand. Hang in there.
I'm so glad to see you say that you didn't bring this on yourself, because you didn't.
– K
A French speaker! Very exciting! Welcome Christine. I'm glad you are here and that you feel supported.
– K
Love hearing you say the word survivor. It's hard to believe that will ever happen, isn't it? Yay you!
– K
Katherine…a huge Thank You lady for all you do. First of all I survived PPD and you were so instrumental in helping me with the decision to finally take meds and to not care about the stigma involving it. I would read your articles every day. For the past year I have worked at a mental health clinic and primarily work with children. However the times I do get the opportunity to speak with a woman suffering from PPD I pass your website on to them.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart. You are a lifeline to many women.
Tandy
This site has been a wonderful avenue for information for me in my journey through PPD/PPA. I was dx exactly a year ago, after suffering for a year and traumatized by the "not knowing" what the hell was wrong w/ me. My therapist was able to give me the PPD dx and everything made sense. I go to this site all the time for new information, especially during those times of relapse when I need extra support and feel like I will never get over this. This site gives me comfort and support and allows me to feel that I have not lost my freaking mind and I really don't need to be committed. Thank you so much for this site. Katherine, if you read this, I live in NE where there are no PPD support groups. Having your guideance to start one would be great! I still feel like in this area PPD is still a "dirty little secret" that no one wants to talk about.
Hi Julie. I'm so glad you are here with us. This is definitely not your fault, and if a positive attitude would fix it well then we'd all be over it pretty darn quick, wouldn't we? I hope you get all the help and support you need through this.
– K
No, you are not alone, and yes, you will definitely be okay. So happy to hear from you!
– K
I hope you feel validated in your experience, even if it's years later. I hope you got some good feedback or support from friends/readers/whoever when you wrote your post. Even if you didn't, know that we support you. Every voice who speaks out helps someone else.
– K
Thank you Meghan! As I've said before, if there's a way we can provide better tools or resources for providers here, let us know!
– K
Yes it does team, and I'm SO SO SO glad you are part of it. I feel a sense of relief and gratitude every time I get one of your posts in my inbox. You have a way of sharing a "provider" perspective that is accessible to everyone, not medicalese. I love it, and I know everyone else does too!
– K
Oh, we'll hug soon, one way or another. So glad to know you!!
– K
I hope you feel that your decision was helpful. We want women to feel that it's okay to reach out for professional medical help, no matter what the treatment plan ends up being.
– K
Hi Rachel. I'm so happy to hear you are healing! Glad to have you her!
– K
Thanks Heather!
Thank you!
Thanks Tandy! I'm happy to hear from you and know you are doing well.
– K
So many people feel like it's a "dirty little secret". There are SO MANY PLACES where there is no support. I hate that out loud. In a major way. I know one day we will be at a place where there's more support and trained providers for all, but that day just can't come soon enough. Thanks Brooke!
I found Postpartum Progress early this year, at a time when I needed it the most. My daughter was a few months old and I was in the middle of plowing through PPA and PPOCD on a daily basis. Finding this blog really helped me to understand what I was going through and made me feel like I belonged to a larger community of empowered women who are learning more about these mood disorders and doing more to educate others about them on a regular basis. I loved the daily hope quotes/notes; they really encouraged me to push through those initially tough days when I felt completely alone and like nobody could possibly understand what I was going through. I am so grateful that I found Postpartum Progress when I did; even now that I have recovered from these illnesses, I continue to read the blog daily/weekly because it means that much to me to support it and other women who have also benefitted from it. Thanks Katherine!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh I wish that I had found your blog sooner, when i was in the thick of things. Reading what you write even now helps me not feel guilty or strange for having experienced PPD/A and to realize that there are alot more women out there than just me feeling like I did. I find that I am not alone anymore. You also inspired me to start my own blog, as a way of healing from the mental affects of PPD. Thanks for all you do!
Thank you!
Thank you Chrissy to talk about the daily emails!!! I haven't see that it exist, so after reading your comment I just register to have it too! Me to I was diagnosed with PPD in may. And me too I thought that it was my fault… you see, your surely not alone. Thank you again :-).
Christine
I'm the one who is glad your are here!!! Do you know Katherine if there is something that exist in Québec for PPD? I didn't find anything on the net, except a very small quote : .
I think I found a new project for me… when I will feel better.
And yes I feel supported :-).
Thank you for everything Katherine! In our PPD Support group we speak about your blog and now daily thoughts often they are inspiring and hopeful to us all that someone like us can have such a positive outcome after going through what we all or were going through your words are inspirational to us all and at times I don't know what I would have done without them thank you Katherine for all you do you are a true blessing
happy blogoversary! Your support has meant so much to so many of us!
Congratulations! Thank you to you, Katherine, to your guest bloggers, and to the community of readers who have made such amazing contributions via this blog to educate and support moms experiencing perinatal mood and anxiety disorders and their families. I know that if Postpartum Progress had been around in 1987-1988 when I experienced PPD/PPA, my journey would not have been as bumpy as it was. Katherine, you have made meaning out of your experience through this blog and you offer moms and their families the knowledge that there is support, hope, and recovery! What a gift you have given us! Thank you!
This blog gives me a forum to raise more of my OWN awareness of current issues on postpartum depression and gives me an opportunity to share information with the community in order to break the depression cycle. I see it nearly everyday.
Mum is depressed. Parenting becomes more stressful. Child's mood and behaviour can then be affected. This then affects the mood of the mum and the family. Relationships are then affected and the cycle goes on and on.
Managing postnatal depression requires prevention, equipping mothers with great parenting support and "training", relationship support and education, and having the skill to build optimistic,resilient children.
Big job I know but a rewarding one.
Dr Vin
MBBS FRACGP Australia http://www.doyouhavedepression.blogspot.com
With the help of Postpartum Progress and its relational approach to helping individuals and families overcome perinatal mood disorders, I am now at the point of wanting (and hopefully soon trying) to have my second child after having Postpartum Depression, Postpartum Anxiety and Postpartum OCD with my first baby.
Postpartum Progress validated not just the experience of going through PPD but also the after-affects (Post Traumatic Stress, general fears, confusion over healthy pregnancy practices etc.).
As a service provider, the Postpartum Progress article on the symptoms of PPD in plain Mama Speak helped my low-income, under-educated mother's identify PPD in themselves. Using this article as an educational tool, I had one client's boyfriend advocate and encourage her to go to the hospital, which she thankfully did since she eventually revealed she had a plan to commit suicide and end her child's life due to her PPD. Another young woman was able to seek appropriate services after seeing her symptoms in the article.
Furthermore, the article helped my family see the extent and depth of what I experienced when I had my episode of PPD. Its nice to be validated by family too!
Thanks Postpartum Progress!
-Sarah B.
It was two years ago today that I admitted to myself and my husband that I thought I had PPD. It was shortly thereafter that I found Postpartum Progress. Your site makes me feel like I am part of a sisterhood of women–women who are just like me, trying to make it through and figure it all out. Your site has encouraged me to share my own story, which in turn has helped other women share their stories with me. Katherine, thank you for all that you do and that you have done over the last seven years. I hope to meet you in person someday (FYI: I'll probably cry on you.)
That would be fun. We could have a cry fest!! You are in a sisterhood of women, and you are contributing to that sisterhood with your own story and support of others!! So glad you are here!
Wow. Thank you so much for sharing these stories with me! They are so awesome to hear. And I'm so happy you felt support too. Glad to know you!
– K
Postpartum Progress has helped me realize that I'm not alone. I felt so isolated, like I was the only person who felt this way and a horrible person for feeling it. Your site and the fabulous women who contribute helped me to see that's not true. When I'm feeling especially gray, and even when I'm not, this is a place I can turn to for a much needed reality check. Thank you for all of your work and dedication!
My family has a history of this and I'm also still dealing with PPA/OCD. This blog helped me TREMENDOUSLY and still does. You are not alone and do not be afraid to ask for help. It saved my life.
I posted occasionally when I first started feeling like something just wasn't right in my head. I was diagnosed with PPA/OCD when my son was about 2 months old. I was researching PPOCD and stumbled onto this blog. The article describing the symptoms of PPA in plain mama english, I kept saying in my head, "yes, that's me!" This site has been a lifesaver to me, especially because I didn't seem to have PPD, but that's the most known one. Katherine, the fact that you dealt with PPOCD was a beacon of light for me, and still is. Anytime PPMDS has come up in conversation for me, I always tell people to visit your site and how much it helped me and is still helping me. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!