Helping Others Through Postpartum Education and Support

by FadraN on September 16, 2010 · 10 comments

in Motherhood

I started several PPD themed posts because of my good friend, Suzanne from pretty*swell. Suzanne has been very open and honest about her journey with PPD and asked us to support her as she participates in an event to raise awareness about PPD in the Raleigh-Durham area. I offered my blog as a way to continue to raise awareness and we are so glad to be able to lend additional voices to this cause.

Our guest post below was written by Anne Wimer. Anne is a postpartum depression survivor and the Founding Director of Postpartum Education and Support, a Raleigh-based nonprofit organization dedicated to the emotional wellness of mothers.

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Anne Wimer and son

Our first night home with our son, my third sleepless night since delivery, I lay in bed at 9:30 with the room spinning around me.  I had never felt so tired, or so scared.

Baby A was asleep in his bassinet, but I couldn’t fall asleep.  Thoughts of how many times we would be up that night, and what seemed like an eternity of nights to come, kept me awake, along with a constant need to reach over and feel Baby A’s chest to make sure he was still breathing.

And then the doorbell rang.

A jolt went through my body. Looking back, I think it was my first panic attack.  A neighbor, trying to be helpful, had wanted to drop off a freshly baked coffee cake for us to have the next morning.  It seemed outrageously late to the new, irrational me, and I was so angry about the doorbell ringing—it had never sounded so loud, so jarring, and what if it had woken up the baby?

It was the beginning of a quick descent into a hellish nightmare of anxiety, intrusive thoughts, and overwhelming worries about how to take care of my newborn.  I didn’t have a name at first for what I was going through, I only knew that it was way beyond the “baby blues” that I had read about in my pregnancy book.  It was 1995, and people weren’t talking about postpartum mood disorders then.  It became a terrible secret, and I thought if anyone found out how I felt, I would be declared an unfit mother and Baby A would be taken from me.

After I recovered on my own the first time because I didn’t know how or where to ask for help, I made sure I was prepared when we decided to get pregnant again.  Like my first pregnancy, I felt great until delivery, but within a few days of bringing home our second son, the depression and anxiety returned.  I received great help from my new obstetrician, a therapist he recommended, and a psychiatrist, who told me on my first visit that he “loved to treat women with PPD because he knew they were going to get well.”  (No words have ever given me such comfort.)

When I recovered the second time, I decided that my suffering would not be for nothing.  I wanted to turn a negative into a positive.

With the help of my doctor and therapist, I started the support group Moms Supporting Moms in 1998.  Since then, the group has grown and moved.  Thanks to a dedicated group from Rex, Moms Supporting Moms got a new home in 2003, grew to include several medical advisors and peer- facilitators, and launched a nonprofit called Postpartum Education and Support (PES).

I now serve as the executive director of PES along with a dedicated board of directors who work tirelessly to raise awareness about PMD and to provide a resource for information and assistance for mothers, families, healthcare providers and community groups that work with new parents.  PES now has two support group locations (Raleigh and Wake Forest), runs a telephone support line, offers email support to women across the state, and offers educational outreach to the community.

I hope you will join us on October 2nd in Cary’s Bond Park for our first StrollerThon to support PES.  (Strollers optional!) If you can’t be with us for the walk, please consider making a pledge to support a team (contact me at awimer@pesnc.org to get connected) or by making a donation.

With your help, we can increase our efforts to reduce the stigma of PMD and help mothers who are suffering in silence because they don’t know where to turn for help.

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Tagged as: anne wimer, Cary, guest post, postpartum depression, postpartum education and support, Postpartum mood disorders, Raleigh, strollerthon, wake forest

  • www.postpartumprogress.com Katherine at Postpartum Progress

    Suzanne is an awesome example of recovery from PPD, as is Anne. I’m so glad you are supporting and highlighting both of them — they’ve done so much to help other women!

    • www.motherhoodandme.com Sue Robinson

      Suzanne is not only an awesome example of recovery, she is just and awesome example of a person! I don’t know Anne personally but her story and what she has done for her community of women is amazing. I am so excited to just do what I can to reach out to other women in my position.

  • prettyswellblog.com suzanne @ pretty*swell

    Sue and Fadra — THANK YOU for all that you’re doing this week to bring awareness to PPD. And, thanks especially for helping us get the word out about Postpartum Education and Support. You gals rock!

    • www.motherhoodandme.com Sue Robinson

      It is funny because I really don’t feel like I am helping any, but I understand sharing and bringing things to light is the only way to get the word out. It is hard to do when all you want is to just make it go away. I am so grateful that we met and I am excited to help you with your event in any way I can!

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  • Anne Wimer

    Thanks, Sue and Fadra! It’s nice to meet you through Suzanne, and I hope to meet you in person soon! We are so grateful for your help in raising awareness about PMD and helping us to let people know about the Strollerthon.

    • www.motherhoodandme.com Sue Robinson

      Anne! I can’t wait to meet you too!
      Thanks so much for letting us help you guys. Was nice to get some things off my chest, but still so hard, ya know?

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  • www.mommythisandthat.com Melisa

    I hope education like this begins to go nationwide, I think women everywhere could use the support. Thank you for spotlighting this this week. It has opened my eyes and helped me to come to terms with my suffering and admit that I will be okay because I am not alone.

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