At my 10-year high school reunion, a small poster stood on an easel in the corner. The poster was a memorial to the classmates who had died since we had graduated. Some I knew about; others were a shock to me. The one that I will never forget was the face of a girl I had known since kindergarten. In fact, her family took me in and took care of me after my grandfather was murdered while my parents made all of the arrangements and dealt with the police investigation. She was blonde, pretty, a little high strung, but basically a down-to-earth girl who loved horses more than anyone I knew. The photo on the board was of her and a baby, and I was shocked beyond belief. I turned to an old friend who had also grown up in the same neighborhood with questionmarks reflecting in my eyes. Quietly she said, “She committed suicide after she killed the baby. Postpartum depression.”
Folks, this was in 1986. Twenty-one years ago. Postpartum depression was widely known, and understood to be dangerous, yet treatable. My friend’s death was as preventable then as it is now. Yet we have a system that doesn’t support mental health treatment in general, and certainly not for PPD. While people are obsessing on whether vaccines cause autism, women, and sometimes their children, are dying because their depression is not being treated properly or in a timely fashion.
It’s time for that to change. BlogHers Act has asked us to blog today, October 24th (okay, I’m late as usual, but I did call my Senator) as a call to action to support the Mothers Act, which expands federal funding for screening, services and research on PPD. (Read more here).
Please consider learning more about PPD and other postpartum mood disorders and supporting the effort to help women who are suffering by asking your Senator to support the Mothers Act.
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Technorati Tags: Blog Day for the Mothers Act, BlogHers Act, BlogHer, Postpartum Depression, PSI, Postpartum Progress
