Mom and Mind

May is Maternal Mental Health Awareness Month, and today, May 6, happens to be World Maternal Mental Health Day. It’s a fitting day to bring you this show with an expert who is the driving force behind a pioneering study to help diagnose postpartum depression earlier and get moms the treatment they need.

Dr. Samantha Meltzer-Brody, MD, MPH, is co-principal investigator of the Mom Genes Fight PPD research study, as well as the Assad Meymandi Distinguished Professor and Chair of the UNC Department of Psychiatry and director of the UNC Center for Women’s Mood Disorders. Her funded research is focused on understanding the genetic signature of postpartum depression and investigating novel technologies and treatment modalities to optimize and personalize treatment for women with perinatal depression. Most recently, this has included the MOM GENES app and the brexanolone clinical trials, the first FDA-approved medication for postpartum depression. She knows a lot, and she’s done a lot with her significant work in perinatal mental health.

Show Highlights:

• What postpartum depression is and why Dr. Meltzer-Brody is studying it
• The MOM GENES study that began in 2016 (learn how you can participate)
• How the study can help us identify who is at risk so intervention can happen earlier
• Who can participate in the study
• The confidentiality and anonymity of the study
• The availability of resources for participants in the study
• How the DNA samples are collected and pooled together
• How the genetic information will be used to determine treatment and outcomes
• The preliminary findings: not all women have the same types of postpartum depression
• Why women with co-occurring anxiety disorders are encouraged to apply for the study
• Examples of postpartum depression and the signals that mean someone needs to seek help
• How the study and the app have already helped people in many ways

Resources:

Mom Genes Fight PPD Learn how you can join the study from the comfort of your own home.

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No one will escape this life without feeling the pain of loss, and there is no better way to channel that pain than through creating something beautiful out of it. In today’s show, you’ll meet a devoted husband and father who wasn’t content to wallow in his loss on the sidelines. He’s turned his pain into purpose as he helps countless families through the challenges of maternal mental health treatment.

Steven D’Achille is president and founder of The Alexis Joy D’Achille Foundation for Postpartum Depression. He’s an advocate for maternal mental health issues because he realizes that women’s health is a family health issue. His passion is creating access to care for struggling families. He’ll go deep into his story today, sharing how postpartum depression took the life of his wife, Alexis. I’ve had the pleasure of serving on the board of Postpartum Support International with Steven, and I’ve seen up close his passion and dedication springing from the horrible and unnecessary outcome of his wife’s death. He is changing the landscape in Pittsburgh and wherever he goes to share his wife’s story and the foundation in her name. Steven is a passionate advocate for fathers, in addition to his support of maternal mental health because he realizes the need for caring for the whole family, especially fathers and partners. As his six-year-old daughter, Adriana puts it, “He wanted to change the world.”

**Sensitivity Notice: Difficult topics are discussed in this episode related to suicide. If you aren’t in a place to listen today, feel free to find the episode at a later date.

Show Highlights:

• Get to know Steven and his story that began with the traumatic birth of his daughter, Adriana
• How Steven’s wife, Alexis, believed that her first act of motherhood was to damage her child
• How things started unraveling almost immediately for Alexis, who knew she needed help
• How Alexis experienced serious anxiety and saw an LCSW for coping mechanisms, receiving a PTSD diagnosis
• The increased anxiety, shame and stigma, and scary options
• More symptoms included depression, insomnia, and loss of appetite
• The disconnect between psychiatric care and Ob care for mothers
• How HIPAA rules prevented the pediatrician from notifying anyone of her concerns about Alexis
• How Alexis was prescribed an antidepressant and the depression escalated to suicidal thoughts; her plea for help went unacknowledged
• How Alexis begged to be admitted for weeks and then hung herself in their basement--just 14 days after beginning the new antidepressant
• How the system failed Alexis
• How Alexis survived to get to the hospital and make it to ICU
• How Steven got clarity on how to move forward and make something good come out of Alexis’ tragedy, to get other moms the help Alexis could not get
• How The Alexis Joy D’Achille Foundation’s hospital treated 3000 moms in 2019
• The family services provided by the foundation
• The importance of a father’s perspective in going through this journey and raising a 6-1⁄2-year-old daughter without her mom
• How our laws protect puppies more than we do moms and babies
• The reality of postpartum depression treatment in the US---and what needs to change
• The power in telling your story
• What the new standard of care should be

Resources:

Alexis Joy Foundation

Facebook: Alexis Joy D’Achille Foundation for Postpartum Depression: @Alexisjoydachille

Instagram: @ajd_foundation

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One challenge that every therapist faces is helping clients through a difficulty that hits very close to home. For instance, when you’ve experienced a personal perinatal mental health challenge, then it can be triggering to provide support for others. Today’s guest has found a way to handle those difficult moments and turn her experience into commitment and advocacy for others.

Bridget Cross is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, certified perinatal mental health professional, and mom to two daughters. She lives in Savannah, Georgia, and works in private practice providing individual, family, and group therapy to new, hopeful, and expectant moms. Bridget is also a volunteer coordinator for the Georgia chapter of Postpartum Support International, and she’s a member of the Maternal Mental Health Collective of Savannah. Bridget’s passion is supporting women in all phases of life, but especially as they encounter and cope with the transition to motherhood. Bridget discusses what it’s like to work as a therapist with pregnant and postpartum moms when going through infertility, and what it’s like working with a perinatal population when going through her pregnancy and postpartum period., Therapists are human, and they have to deal with their own challenges while helping their clients.

Show Highlights:

• Bridget’s three-year journey with IUI and IVF to have her first daughter, now 5
• The crippling anxiety, anger, intrusive thoughts, and panic that set in quickly and intensely at her daughter’s birth
• Why Bridget felt that she “should be stronger than this”
• How Bridget found herself in deep, dark depression when her daughter was one month old
• How Bridget withdrew from everyone in her life and “hid out”
• The external stressors of work, moving to a new city, and career pressure
• How Bridget went back to work and became involved with PSI
• The moment of relief and recognition for Bridget that brought clarity on her next steps as a therapist
• How Bridget covered up and justified her feelings when people tried to help her
• The assumption that mental health professionals will know to ask for help if they need it
• How hard it is to admit to others that you need help, especially as a mental health professional
• When Bridget’s daughter was two, she got pregnant again with IVF, which resulted in an easy pregnancy and wonderful birth
• Why Bridget expected postpartum depression with her second daughter’s birth and felt better prepared; she started early medications, therapy, and returned to work in a few weeks
• Bridget’s commitment to becoming an advocate for pregnant and postpartum women, knowing this was part of her personal healing journey
• The difficult parts of seeing pregnant and postpartum clients even though some stories are triggering and painful
• How to handle the tendency to get angry about her own story and clients’ stories
• How to hold space for the anger, hopelessness, and helplessness in this community
• Why Bridget believes her path has made her a better therapist
• Bridget’s message to other therapists: “Try to prioritize taking care of yourself and your feelings. Check your boundaries and notice presenting issues that are just too much to handle. Know when you need to step away. Listen to yourself and get connected to the perinatal mental health community.”

Resources:

Bridget Cross LCSW

Facebook: Bridget Cross LCSW

Listen To Moms

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The focus of our chat is on sex, but it’s also about relationships and stress and how our brains work. Our guest Emily Nagoski, Ph.D. shares her brilliant wisdom with us in this episode. Given the current state of the world, we are living in times of unprecedented stress, which absolutely affects how we relate to each other. I’m excited for you to hear this episode and learn more about your brain, sex and stress, especially postpartum. (FYI, sex related body parts, sex related words are used in our chat).

Emily Nagoski is a sex educator and the author of Come As You Are: The Surprising New Science That Will Transform Your Sex LIfe and Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle. Her job is to travel all over the world, training therapists, medical professionals, college students, and the general public about the science of women’s sexual wellbeing.

Show Highlights:

• The dual control model of how your brain perceives and processes sex
• Why you might feel judgment about your sexual response, which “hits the brakes”--not the accelerator
• Why the magical six-week timeline doesn’t work for most women
• How your brain responds to the physical changes that come with giving birth
• The best perspective on the six-week timeline
• Steps to take in the chaos:
• Identify what is causing you to hit the brakes
• Have non-sexual sharing and touching
• Why Emily doesn’t use the term “libido”
• Why sexual desire differential is the #1 reason people seek sex therapy
• The secrets of sexuality in long-term relationships
• Why desire does NOT come first
• Why you need to identify the sex you want---and don’t want
• Why “pleasure is the measure” of your sexual wellbeing
• Why Emily reads her own audiobook versions
• Creating the ultimate sex-positive context through kindness and compassion
• The difference in confidence and joy

Resources:

Emily Nagoski

Come As You Are: The Surprising New Science That Will Transform Your Sex Life by Emily Nagoski

Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle by Emily Nagoski

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Emilia Ortega-Jara, LCSW is a psychotherapist, Founder and Clinical Director of Corazon Counseling Service Inc., a holistic culturally-rooted community-based counseling center that focuses on all things Preconception, Pregnancy, Birth, and Postpartum! Emilia has over 20 years’ experience working in the mental health field and has been a longtime advocate for culturally and linguistically appropriate mental health services in the Latinx community. She has worked with various social justice organizations and community based mental health agencies throughout California. After the birth of her son, Emilia took special interest in developing her clinical expertise in the treatment of perinatal mood and anxiety distress among Chicana/Indigenous and Latinx communities. She is Certified as a Perinatal Mental Health Specialist through Postpartum Support International and is trained in EMDR, she uses EMDR techniques in the treatment of Perinatal Loss and Birth Trauma. Emilia is passionate about supporting and empowering parents at all stages of their parenting journey through the use of traditional ancestral knowledge and modern trauma-informed psychotherapy. Emilia is a mother to a spirited and emotionally attuned 8-year-old who loves the fact that mommy helps other mommies not be sad, and wife to the most supportive and socially conscious husband.

Nayeli Corona-Zitney is a bilingual, licensed clinical social worker whose private practice in Rancho Cucamonga, CA, specializes in Perinatal Mental Health. Her experience includes therapeutic work with adolescents, families, and new parents experiencing perinatal mood disorders. Nayeli is an active member of Postpartum International (PSI) and currently volunteers as PSI’s support coordinator for Riverside and San Bernardino Counties in California. Nayeli is committed to offering her expertise to the community. She does this through her private practice and also by facilitating pregnancy and postpartum support groups in the community in both English and Spanish. Nayeli is a wife, mother of two, and Perinatal Mental Health Advocate who integrates a social justice framework, which recognizes how migration and historical socio-political policies can negatively impact certain groups.

Puntos destacados del podcast:

• Es de vital importancia cuidar la salud mental de las madres durante el parto y posparto.
• Por la situación de incertidumbre actual, el estrés en la mujer es especialmente difícil para las embarazadas y para las que acaban de dar a luz.
• Hay que garantizar el bienestar de las madres, cuidarlas y darles el apoyo emocional que necesitan, siendo tan vulnerables y sensibles en esta etapa.
• Depresión y ansiedad en la etapa perinatal, Nayeli se especializó en esta fase porque durante el embarazo de su hija tuvo un parto traumático y le tuvieron que hacer una cesárea de emergencia.
• deben ser lo suficientemente fuertes como para hacerlo ellas solas.
• La obligación de dar y recibir apoyo no solo recae sobre la madre sino a todo el mundo de su alrededor.

Recursos:

• Consejería Terapia del Diálogo:

1. Terapia cognitiva conductal
2. Terapia interpersonal
3. Desensibilización y deprocesamiento por medio de movimientos oculares.

• Grupos de terapia del Hospital Columbia Valley: 2 veces al mes, el primer y tercer miércoles de cada mes.
• Grupos de apoyo PSI (Postpartum Support International)
• Corazón counselling
• Nayeli LCSW

Corazon Counseling

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