Wake up, Warrior Moms. Wake uppeople who work to prevent child abuse, people who work to prevent suicide, people who work to prevent preterm births, people who care about healthy families. Wake up, people who care about motherhood. Wake up, women of America. Wake up psychiatric professionals, nurses, OB/GYNS, pediatricians.
Here'san actual text of acommunication being sent far and wide by the very loud and vociferous opposition to the Melanie Blocker Stokes MOTHERS Act to support increased funding, education and researchfor postpartum depression (the underlining is mine):
"This MOTHER'S Act,with its innocuous sounding name will mandate
"mental screening" for Pregnant women. This will lead to many more
young mothers being labeled with fraudulent psychiatric conditions and
many of them will be put on dangerous psychiatric drugs even while
they are still pregnant.This is already happening in some states
such as New Jersey with the state legislature previously passed a
similar bill.With your help, we were able to stop this Federal bill dead in its
tracks last year, but the drug lobby apparently never sleeps and
they got it through the House of Representatives.Now we need some fast action from thousands of doctors and patients
across the country – in the form of phone calls and faxes to their
US Senatorsto stop this bill from passing in the Senate …"
Let's be VERY, VERY clear. There are some people who, for whatever reason, have decided to convince others that the singular purpose of the Melanie Blocker Stokes MOTHERS Act is to line the pockets of the pharmaceutical companies and drug our nation's mothers. If you think they aren't calling their Senators and Congresspeople you are mistaken. They are very convicted in their feelings and they call WAY MORE than we do.
If you believe what they are saying is true, then I'm not sure why you'd be reading this blog. Because chances are, if you read this blog, you know for a fact, as sure as death and taxes, that there is nothing "fraudulent" about postpartum depression or anxiety, postpartum OCD, postpartum psychosis, or depression and anxiety duringpregnancy. I find that deeply, completely insulting.
I'm not sure what is so difficult to accept about the idea that women who are ill with REAL illnesses need help and we need our society to take more responsibility to help them, starting with the Melanie Blocker Stokes MOTHERS Act. PERIOD.
END. OF. STORY.
Have these people not seen the research? Do they not know that women with untreated postpartum depression can go on to have chronic depression for the rest of their lives? Do they not know that women with untreated depression during pregnancy are twice as likely to have pre-eclampsia, twice as likely to have a C-section, twice as likely to have a pre-term delivery andtwice as likely to have their baby go to NICU? Do they know the odds of developmental delay for children whose mothers' illness goes on and on and on and on? Do they notknow that suicide as a result of postpartum mood disorders is the leading cause of death for women postpartum in the US?
You can sit by on the sidelines and watch them win, just like they say they did last year when the Melanie Blocker Stokes MOTHERS Act was NOT passed. You can say I signed that petition last year so I'm not doing it again. You can decide that your voice doesn't count. You can let them convince the rest of the world that the MOTHERS Act is a conspiracy to drug the mothers of the world. You can say I have too many other things to worry about. You can say they're just the fringe and that no one pays attention to them, but you'd be wrong.
I'm asking you not to. Please donot allow more women and children to suffer when it's no longer necessary. I don't care if you've never had PPD and it's not on your radar screen. Healthy women, healthy children and health families should be on EVERYONE's radar screen.
Go to the DBSA and sign the petition.
AND, email Susan Stone at susanstonelcsw@aol.com and put your name on the state-by-state list of people who endorse this bill.
AND, call AND write your Senator or Congressperson:
US Senatehttp://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
US House of Representatives https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml
AND write about the Melanie Blocker Stokes MOTHERS Actin your blog.
AND call or email every one of your organization's members today and tell them to get up and get to work for goodness sake.
AND join Postpartum Support International as it works to create more and better services and education for the women who suffer. http://postpartum.net/become-member/
The emotional health of approximately 1 million American familiesEVERY SINGLEYEAR depends on this.
Because honestly, if we can't get this one damn bill passed, how are we going to tackle the much bigger task of helping every single woman who needs help in this country? How are we going to create funding for transportation and childcare for women who can't get to their doctors because they have no car and no babysitter? How are we going to develop a network of highly trained, effective healthcare providers who are willing to treat women with no insurance? How are we going to fund more research to find out the exact causes of these illnesses so we can develop better, more pinpointed treatments? How are we going to make sure there aresupport groups in every corner of this country, no matter how urban or how rural? How are we going to educate doctors on preventing these illnesses in the first place by conducting social histories of their patients BEFORE they get pregnant?
This bill has been seven freaking years in the making. In those seven years, how much unnecessary devastation has been suffered?
Totally insane. What are these people thinking? People should learn to read and TRULY understand proposed legislation before they start spouting ridiculous claims to try to scare others away from something that this society has needed for one too many years already. This is a conspiracy of ludicrousness. It's bad enough people think that PPD is an imagined illness and good mothers would never be anything less than blissfully happy, glowing, supermom characters that the media paints of what motherhood should be like. These people who are speaking up against the Mothers Act are trying to keep women in the dark and at a disadvantage. Women should definitely be angered into petitioning for this legislation. Open your eyes and see just how real PPD is and the lives, marriages, families it has destroyed and is in the process of destroying as we speak. If these people can see beyond their personal vendetta because there was an incorrect diagnosis made by their doctor or there was a medication that was prescribed to help with antenatal depression that might have caused a health issue with the baby–both of which are examples of why education are so CRITICAL–it should NOT mean that all other mothers in this society should not derive any benefits from an improvement in the current care provided them through 1) increased research in preventing postpartum mood disorders, new & better treatment options, etc., 2) screening new moms for a postpartum mood disorder (PPMD) so they can address it sooner so they can enjoy motherhood instead of experiencing the hell that a PPMD can cause, and 3) EDUCATION, EDUCATION, EDUCATION to dispel myths, ignorance that are barriers to women speaking up about their illnesses and getting the treatment (medical/therapy) they need to get well. Read my blog for more on the benefits of education & screening!
Yes, I've seen these anti-MOTHERS Act posts. And I get very frustrated that often there is no opportunity to post a rebuttal and when there is – and I have posted – my rebuttals are usually "hidden." That is, there is just a little line saying there is a comment but my post is not visibly displayed with the other comments, is easily overlooked, and requires an additional click to go to view it. Really discouraging.
None of us want to see pregnant and postpartum women drugged against their will – so if that is their real concern, why not engage in a real dialogue? And if they are simply anti-drug, why not just say that? And if it is health of the mother and child, why not propose an alternative that can help all those women who suffer instead of simply opposing what many dedicated volunteers have worked so hard at to HELP those mothers and children? If it is individual freedom – why use deliberate falsehoods and logical fallacies? I wish I understood what their real agenda is.
I, for one, oppose always using drugs as a first resort to treat mood disorders. I oppose treating mood disorders in such a way as to cause stigmatization and discrimination against individuals. I oppose treating mood disorders as if they don't exist – as if the person suffering is to blame – as if they are a matter of will or faith. I oppose government control of personal decisions. I oppose drug companies that do not engage in full disclosure.
AND
I SUPPORT the MOTHERS Act!
There are still a lot of people don't don't believe it exists or that women can just "get over it". When speaking on a message board with OTHER WOMEN about a woman who passed PPD and went on to a psycosis to injure her children, the women on that board attacked me for saying that the mom was in need of serious help and that the system failed her.
They said that they managed to get along just fine and not experience any PPD or psychosis and therefore this mom was just crazy and evil and should be put to death.
The way I understand it, it isn't about medicating women…it is about keeping tabs on their emotional health so they don't fall through the cracks and get them treatment if necessary. I can say that my GYN failed me with my son…I ASKED for help and didn't get it!! I don't remember most of my son's 1st year because of the fog of depression I was in…and though I managed to pull myself out of the worst of it (I have an awesome husband that did whatever he could) I was still highly depressed for the past few years. It wasn't until I finally found a therapist that was willing to see me right away and not put me on a year long (or longer) waiting list did I able to get help for my depression (and I currently do not suffer from PPD even with my second baby…I don't take meds, but I did have help from my therapist!).
What I don't understand is why moms are targets? Why are there so many people determined to keep moms in that false utopia of Mother when the reality can be (and frequently is) very very ugly?
Thank you, thank you, thank you for keeping up updated about the progress of this bill! I blogged about this and will keep doing my part to make sure other women don't go through the hell I did.
This is disgusting. Just when you think we have taken two steps forward, we get pushed back four steps. Katherine, reading your post today and the responses brought tears to my eyes. How can it be that so many of us have suffered and still so many do not believe that this is an illness that needs support.
My OB failed me with my son as well. When I read what Sandy states I feel like I could have written it myself.
Thank you so much for such a helpful article. I am part of Bizymoms Memphis community. http://www.bizymoms.com/memphis/index.php . I know moms would appreciate this article. It would be great if you can publish this in their site. I think they have a form in their experts page. http://www.bizymoms.com/memphis/experts.php