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September 29, 2007

Hi everyone,

I'd like to introduce you to Katherine Stone (no relation) who in the coming month is leading our participation in "Take Action for the MOTHERS Act!" Blog Day: October 24, 2007.

Will you join us? Will you call yourself and blog it, urging your readers to call too? I'll give you two reasons: A description of the Mothers Act policy that could die in committee in the U.S. Senate, followed by a glimpse inside post-partum depression as experienced by Katherine herself. Read on...

1. Policy - Mothers Act is a bill introduced into the Senate by Senator Menendez of New Jersey that would provide for education about postpartum mood disorders for new mothers and their families, require healthcare professionals to screen new moms for postpartum mood disorders during the first year postpartum, and train those professionals on how to conduct proper screenings and care for women who are diagnosed with these illnesses. This bill is currently with the Health, Education, Labor & Pensions (HELP) Committee of the Senate. If the majority of the Help Committee Members endorse the MOTHERS Act, the bill will move forward for consideration by the Senate. Without Senate sponsors, the bill could languish in committee and await reintroduction at a future date.

2. Reality for 500,000 women a year - When I met Katherine Stone at BlogHer '08 in Chicago, I thought two things: One, that Katherine has some of the most beautiful red hair I have ever seen. "Touched by angels!" I thought and smiled as I took her card.

Then I read the URL Katherine wrote on the back (also in red): "Postpartum Progress, http://postpartumprogress.typepad.com". My second thought was: Red badge of courage. I would never have guessed that the vibrant, happy-looking woman standing before me had been through the experience she begins to describe in her post this week on BlogHer:

If You Are A Mother, Know A Mother or Have A Mother, You Need To Know About Postpartum Mood Disorders

"I thought I'd just gone plain crazy. I hoped whatever it was would just go away. It didn't. I wasted many weeks in despair rather than speak up. I didn't want anything to be wrong with me, I didn't want to be labeled with a mental illness, and I certainly didn't want to take the "dreaded" psychiatric medication. When I finally did decide to ask for help, I found out that lots of doctors know as much about treating these illnesses as I did: zilch. In this day and age it is hard to imagine, but many healthcare providers are not trained on how to properly identify and treat postpartum mood disorders...

"Perhaps you're finding that you didn't know as much about this stuff as you thought. Perhaps you've felt you didn't need to learn much about it. But I hope you'll be willing to learn. Every other week, I'll be talking with you about these illnesses and connecting you with some of the very beautiful and amazing women who've gone through them, many of whom are BlogHers too. If you never need to use this information for yourself I say amen!, but perhaps one day you'll be able to help someone close to you -- a sister, a friend, a co-worker -- because you made an effort to learn and understand."

In the coming weeks leading up to October 24, Katherine will be returning to BlogHer to interview women who have had the experience of post-partum depression. And provide some of the rest of us with an opportunity to come forward ourselves. You'll be able to find her latest posts here. This is the first group-blogging initiative arising from BlogHers Act, where our community elected maternal health as the global health initiative for us to focus on in the coming year.

Whether or not you (and your children) have had the dangerous experience of PPD, I hope you will join me in picking up your phone and also urging our readers to pick up their phones and call the United States Senate to protect other women and their children from the very real risks arising from this condition.

Will you blog it?

Will you personally call your senator at (202) 224-3121?

Will you help?

I'd love to hear from you in the comments below...link your post so that I can report back on who's participating? If you blog it, I will link it...use the tag BlogHersAct or MothersAct. Or both!

Best,
Lisa

for Elisa, Jory and Lisa

Lisa Stone is a BlogHer Co-founder. Her personal blog is Surfette.

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