The desperate village

By LAUREN HALE
Featured blogger

A sobbing woman walks into her obstetrician's office with a newborn baby. Sounds like the beginning of a bad joke, right? Well, for some unfortunate women, the joke is on them and it's a dangerous joke indeed. The women I am referring to are new mothers who have been courageous enough to seek treatment for a Postpartum Mood Disorder yet find themselves either denied assessment, dismissed, or inappropriately medicated and sent on their way with no additional therapy prescription, left wading fearfully and silently through dark waters.

In the spring of 2004, I found myself joining the ranks of women turned away by the very people they trusted the most – their physicians. For three months after the birth of my first daughter, I often struggled with sleep, snapped at my husband for no reason, yelled at the dogs for glancing my way , and constantly battled horrific fleeting thoughts filling my head. I finally garnered enough courage to call my doctor's office. I hesitantly admitted things weren't the way they were supposed to be. I was promised glow. Where was my glow? Where was this mythic calm? Where was my Vaseline lens of cheer, my soap opera happy mama moment? Why couldn't I enjoy my daughter instead of thinking she judged me every step of the way?

Armed with a 72-count questionnaire, answering yes to thoughts of harming myself or my infant, my doctor sat grinning across from me and told me I didn't have Postpartum Depression. What was his reasoning? At six weeks, a woman's hormones magically realign and all is right within the new mom psyche, according to him. (Never mind that Postpartum Mood Disorders can occur at anytime within the first year and most common onset is between two and four months, two weeks beyond his six week limit1) He then asked how important I considered breastfeeding my child, apparently ignoring my screaming infant in her car seat, the mini-elephant in the room. Medication refused, my diagnosis thrown out the window due to his belief in a very outdated time frame for onset and my apparent ability to dress myself and put on bare minimum make-up, I wanted to scream. He did offer an appointment with the in-house therapist. I never went. They kept calling to reschedule. Enough games waltzed through my own head on an hourly basis. I didn't need any of theirs added to the mix. I smiled and grinned my way out of the appointment and went home to weep.

When our daughter was five months old, we moved back to Georgia. I began to heal slowly. Or I thought I did. My depression never lifted and continued through my second pregnancy only to blow up a month after our second daughter came home after twenty-eight days in the NICU. I awoke that morning with one thought on my mind – how bad would it get if I let go? I didn't have the strength to hold on anymore. My tenacity flew the coop. Insecurity and Insanity soon took its place, landing me in a psychiatric ward before midnight. Never had I felt so alone, abandoned and scared.

My new doctor had prescribed one drug which worked until we increased the dosage. I believe this is what landed me in the hospital. Once there, my medication was changed. Slowly, I found myself able to function again. Smiles became more frequent, the fighting and accusations of deceit less so. I began to find other women to speak with about my journey, including Jane Honikman, the founder of Postpartum Support International. As I continued on my road, I founded a local peer support organization for moms and volunteered with Postpartum Support International. Not all new moms are as fortunate as I have been. This is why the Melanie Blocker Stokes MOTHER'S Act is an absolute necessity for American families.

Based on New Jersey's legislation spearheaded by New Jersey's former First Lady Mary Jo Codey. and including legislation put forth by Representative Bobby Rush, D-Ill., with tireless advocacy by Carole Blocker, mother of Melanie Blocker Stokes, the MOTHER'S Act or Melanie Blocker-Stokes MOTHER'S Act (H.R. 20) in the House and S 324 in the Senate, provides for essential research into the mental health of women resolving a pregnancy and encourages education of medical professionals as well as new and expecting parents. And contrary to belief passionately held by critics of the bill, the current version does not mandate screening of all new mothers. Instead a proposed two-year study of effective screening is to be completed by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. The MSB MOTHER'S Act also does not encourage increased medicating of America's mothers. Through it's provisions to encourage increased community support, development of community-based support programs, and education of medical professionals already working with this population. In my opinion, the increased education measures provisioned by the MSB MOTHER'S Act may reduce the amount of Mothers who are medicated or at the very least assure they are medicated properly, thereby avoiding unnecessary negative side-effects some people experience with anti-depressant usage.

Increased education including the public awareness campaign should also aid in removing the stigma and fear that has so long surrounded Postpartum Mood Disorders. This stigma has allowed Mothers to be ignored or mistreated when they admit their unexpected feelings of failure, guilty, and sometimes even insanity after giving birth for too long. In addition, many new alternative methods and correlations are being discovered and if funding were to be provided, more research into the alternative treatment field could be performed, encouraging doctors to allow more Mothers to use natural and holistic treatments to battle mild cases of Postpartum Mood Disorders instead of turning to the almighty anti-depressant, a treatment that is more often than not misused and misunderstood by general doctors. Up to 90 percent of new moms struggling with Postpartum Mood Disorders may be nutritionally deficient. For instance, some Mothers finding themselves struggling with a Postpartum Mood Disorder may find relief in supplementing with Magnesium or Calcium as deficiencies of both have been shown to manifest as depression or other mood disorder symptoms. Research has also shown Omega 3 to be effective in managing mood.

Mothers and children are the beating hearts of our future. We owe them all the support we can give them, especially now. With the net worth of families declining nine percent in the last quarter, more mothers are finding themselves having to join the workforce earlier than planned. Why is this significant? It's significant because working mothers are more likely to experience depression. A recent survey by Working Mother found that 91 percent of respondents had signs of depression. Take into consideration that one in five working women will experience depression in their lifetime, add a healthy dose of the Postpartum statistic of one in 10 new moms experience a Postpartum Mood Disorder, and you have quite a depressed population on your hands. Then add in a decrease in growth of the Psychiatric profession and you've almost got a pandemic on your hands inadequately handled by physicians not well-trained to handle the primary complaint. Would you trust your cancer care to a General Practitioner? No. You'd see an oncologist. Why should it be any different for a mental health illness?

According to an article in the St. Cloud Times, there is a five month wait to see a psychiatrist at a local clinic, even with the three staffed doctors seeing patients every twenty minutes. Angela Broska-Smith of St. Cloud did not receive the best support from her Primary Care Physician and ended up addicted to her medication. Why didn't she see a Psychiatrist? It's possible the five month wait played a major role in her decision. She hopes more primary care physicians are able to receive training in Depression & Anxiety conditions so others won't face a similar situation.

Carole Blocker, insatiable crusader, has led the charge in getting legislation introduced to prevent the tragedy of her daughter, Melanie Stokes, from happening again. Again, at the heart of the situation lies physician ignorance of Postpartum Mood Disorders. In her search for recovery, Melanie found herself hospitalized three times in seven weeks, given several different medications and still ended up jumping to her death from the 12th floor of a Chicago building. What if her physicians understood the disorders that occur so often to new mothers? Would Melanie still be here today?

So many studies have already been done regarding medical professionals and screening. One such study in 2005 by Seehusen, Baldwin, Runkle, and Clarke asked “Are Family Physicians Appropriately Screening for Postpartum Depression?” The respondents had some formal training in Postpartum Mood Disorders and recognized it as a real, serious, and treatable illness. Nearly one third of them always screened for PPD, with thirty percent of them using a validated screening tool. Only six percent of the respondents never screened. In contrast, a recent UK study revealed medical professionals worded questions to prevent a diagnosis or admission of Postpartum Mood Disorder from being given. The reason? No referral network and no knowledge of how to treat a woman with a PMD. It was not noted if the respondents in the UK study had received formal training regarding Postpartum Mood Disorders. Yet another recent study states that professionals in an academic setting feel comfortable and responsible for screening yet aren't charting their screens, counseling, or results. A precedence needs to be set to ensure all Mothers receive the same information and care during the postpartum period.

The MSB MOTHER'S Act will save lives. It will increase knowledge of Mood Disorders, enabling mothers and families to seek help sooner, encourage increased education of both medical professionals and parents alike. The world around the Mother has changed. She no longer has her extended family nearby to help with daily mothering tasks. No one to mentor her through pregnancy, labor, breastfeeding, spiraling moods after birth, diaper changes, diaper rashes, solid foods, sleep problems, ear infections, potty training, or handling more than one child. It truly does take a village to raise a Mother and the Mother's Act will help to create a solid village around America's Mothers, a village we all deserve and so desperately need.