It was six weeks, six weeks postpartum, I mean, this is a time where
babies are seen regularly after by the pediatrician but it takes
women six weeks to get to a place where they see their OBGYN.
That's a long time to kind unravel and I was unraveling.
I consider myself very organized and a very structured person and I think baby
number five kind of knocked some things out of order for me and I was kind of
like this pot that was bubbling over. The anxiety, I was very nervous all the time
and I said I felt like something was gonna be taken from me at any moment.
And I didn't want anything to happen to my babies, my children.
You feel like you're not living up to the expectations of what is expected
of mothers and wives and you just kind of say, perhaps that you do not
want to be here doing this anymore.
the most common time in a woman's entire lifetime when she can get depressed and
anxious is after she's had a baby. I think she called a couple times and
she just had some vague complaints that were not like her.
I guess I just gave her the environment that she...and she opened up and she
shared, and we took it from there. That was difficult but yeah it was great to be able to finally...
it's like a weight off your your shoulder to be able to walk in and say
all these things that you've been wanting to say that you think you're
gonna be judged for and to know that, like you said, this is common, you're
not the only one feeling this way.
It's something that we we do screens for now.
That's part of our postpartum visit. We do a screening to detect that earlier
and really in the America College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has
recognized that the postpartum visit really probably should occur more at two
weeks and then have a follow-up at six weeks. Just so we're catching those
issues earlier because it is so widespread.
When I heard about it I mean I got chills.
It's so important to have that outlet to know that
there's women that are suffering like you may be suffering that are
experiencing the same things and that's it's a safe environment and safe space
for you to go and get the care and treatment you need with somebody that you trust.
But you don't feel like...you don't feel alone.
It's important, it's so important, in so many areas whether it's labor and
delivery, cancer survivorship, it's so important.
I committed myself after having gone through the postpartum depression that I
too would somehow find a way to service women who are or were where I was at
with the postpartum and so I have become a certified doula. And I always tell my
mother's, the biggest part of my being a doula is giving back that
postpartum care that I know a woman needs once she's had that baby.
Our goal here is to really approach patients where they are and really help them look
holistically at what they're doing in their life and what are
their goals and where do they want to be and what is "being well" mean to them and
if they've had anxiety or depression what does "healing" mean to them and make
sure that journey...because it's work, it's work, and make sure that they
are able to continue. It's a lifetime of work, once you've been there, but it gets easier.