Sharing Your Voice: Giving Postpartum Depression a Voice

Sharing Your Voice is a new weekly feature at The Nut House that allows for you, my friends, to give Postpartum Depression a Voice. Just like Congenital Heart Defects has found a place in my life, so has Postpartum Depression. And so I am giving PPD a home here on my website.

Postpartum Depression is a roller coaster and can not be wrapped up into one ugly little package that the media has given it. It is not all about mothers “ignoring” their children or in the worst cases harming them, it is about recovering after childbirth, both physically, emotionally, mentally and chemically. Yep, I said chemically. There can be chemical imbalances due to hormonal changes after childbirth. All of these changes can come on directly after childbirth, as in moments after the baby is born or can take weeks or months to start affecting a mother of a newborn.

My story started last fall after my 5th baby was born. It was odd for me to think about PPD after having four children before her, but that is one of the sneaky little ways the PPD remains under the radar for so many. It was not something that I was expecting and by the time I figured it out I was pretty bad off. But I used my Voice, I spoke to my husband until he listened, and the he spoke to me until I listened. I was lucky enough that my midwife listened when I spoke to her and immediately took the steps I needed to start treatment. I often hear stories of new mothers getting the brush off while their caregivers explain their troubles away. Both prenatal and postpartum care of mothers is one of those “If you don’t like your job, don’t go to work” kind of jobs. All pregnancies are different, all deliveries are different, all postpartum experiences are different, and postpartum depression fits right in there with those experiences.

If you haven’t read my story, it starts here with this post, Postpartum Depression: Mama’s Losin’ It

And I have a few things to look out for that I personally experienced here in this post, Are You Suffering from Postpartum Depression? How Would You Know?

Now on to the fun (and sometimes scary!) part, I would like to share YOUR story. I want to hear how PPD has affected you and what you did/are doing about it. Sharing Your Voice is a weekly guest post feature in which I will be sharing a different postpartum depression story every week, written by YOU. All of the details on how to participate and Share Your Voice are listed here in this post in The Nut House Community Forum.

This post here is a shout out to all you Strong PPD Mamas who are ready to share your story, as well as those that aren’t ready yet. Next Monday I will have my very first guest post, written by one of you. I can’t wait to Share Your Voice and listen to what You have to say about Postpartum Depression. Don’t forget to stop by my community in the link above and see how to get involved.