Epistolary Rally Against Postpartum Depression

Maternal mental illness is much more common than people think.

-Katherine Stone

In a Mother’s Day spotlight on the dark side of motherhood, Postpartum Progress will launch its Third annual Mother’s Day Rally For Moms’ Mental Health on Sunday, May 8. Starting at 12:01 AM Postpartum Progress will publish a “A Letter To a New Mom” every hour on the hour – each “written by survivors of and experts on postpartum depression, postpartum anxiety and postpartum psychosis, as well as others who care about the emotional well-being of moms and moms-to-be.” Follow the posting of these missives by visiting Postpartum Progress, subscribing to the blog, or following the Twitter hashtag #momsdayrally or the Facebook page.

Publisher Katherine Stone first held the Mother’s Day Rally in 2009 to raise awareness of PPD and related issues. “The event helps create relationships and spread the word about Postpartum Progress as a resource,” she says. In past years she has noticed increased traffic around the rally, but hard feedback trickles in over time.

A lot of my readers are lurkers, as you can probably understand from the nature of the illness. They are nervous about identifying themselves, even in a safe place like Postpartum Progress. Two years later I’ll get an email from them saying they’ve been reading all along and want to say thank you for the support, and I never knew they were there in the first place. It’s a very cool experience. The same thing happens with the rally. The regular commenters (who I adore!) will comment, but there are exponentially more people affected by what is written. One of the participants this year, Katie Sluiter from the blog Sluiter Nation, said that last year’s rally helped save her when she was going through PPD.

The Mother’s Day Rally takes a lot of time and effort to produce, considering that there are 24 handpicked writers involved. Stone selects participants by reading blogs and sourcing from her Twitter following throughout the year, “really paying attention to who is writing about their experience or even mentioning that they had a perinatal mood or anxiety disorder like postpartum depression.” She strives to keep the writing level up to a good standard to match the rest of the blog. Potential writers are invited throughout the year, and then Stone is “tethered to my laptop or smartphone” during the week before Mother’s Day.

Scroll through the letters from the last two years and you will see what she means. “It’s worth it though,” says Stone, who is obviously passionate about her cause. “The illnesses…are very serious, as you can tell if you’ve spent any time reading what these moms have gone through. People need to know that, and they also need to know that you can recover with help. It’s not the end of the world. I thought it was the end of my world, and I refuse to let other women drift in the wind the way I did.”

For 2011, Stone now has a non-profit, Postpartum Progress, Inc., that she hopes will benefit from the attention that the Rally attracts. She raises money to benefit women in low-income areas, where the incidence of PPD is higher than in the general population.

We focus on the use of readily-available and accessible low-cost technology and social networks to inform and help women, and on marshaling resources by collaborating with others to create new programs and services. Our projects are grounded in evidence-based medicine, easy to access, easy to understand, interactive and personally relevant. We believe all women should have access to the best information and help, regardless of their socio-economic status or geographical location.

Stone’s slate of writers for 2011 promises a hard-hitting day of posts. Looking forward, she says “I’d love to have someone who wants to write about post-adoption depression in the future. It’s important to make sure that any woman who is suffering can see herself in or feel represented by at least one of the stories.”

Postpartum Progress Mother’s Dally Rally 2011 Writers:

Heather King from The Extraordinary Ordinary @heatheroftheeo

Becky Harks from Mommy Wants Vodka and Band Back Together @mommywantsvodka

Morra Arons-Mele from Women & Work @morram

Janice Croze from 5 Minutes for Mom @5minutesformom

Morgan Shanahan from The 818 and BlogHer @the818

Maria Lianos from A Mother World @amotherworld

Nish Weiseth from The Outdoor Wife and A Deeper Story @theoutdoorwife

Sharon DeVellis from The Yummy Mummy Club @sharondv

Kristen Howerton from Rage Against the Minivan and ShePosts @kristenhowerton

Ceridwen Morris from Babble’s Being Pregnant @ceridwenmorris

Grace Parson from Arms Wide Open @ourarmswideopen