BlogHers Act: The MOTHERS Act

Last year my friend Tracy Thompson's book "The Ghost In The House: Real Mothers Talk About Maternal Depression, Raising Children, and How They Cope " was published. I was one of the lucky ones who got to read a few chapters before it hit the bookstore shelves. I thought (and still do, dammit!) it to be brilliant, insightful and informative. I figured it would fly off the shelves and Tracy would have a best seller on her hands. As a clinical social worker, I'm quite familiar with how common depression is among mothers, particularly new ones. I figured moms would scoop it up. Doctors would recommend it. The media would be all over it. And most importantly, mothers and others would benefit from the stories Tracy had gathered as well as what Tracy had experienced and written about. I was confident a destigmatizing of depression would be on the horizon and utterly obtainable. Finally!

But it didn't work that way.

Why? Believe it or not she was told the topic of maternal depression was, get this, "Too depressing" and magazines would not cover the topic and discuss her work for fear their readership would become too bummed out. Seems to me their readership needs to know about depression since so many moms have it and may not even realize they have maternal depression. According to Tracy,"the stigma associated with discussing PPD is especially fierce."

Many cases of PPD go undiagnosed. Depression, particularly in new moms, gets easily masked by other symptoms; being tired, being hungry, gaining weight, losing weight, sleeplessness, too much sleep, irritability, tearfulness, sadness, anger, worthlessness, frustration, guilt...the list goes on. Bottom line another set of eyes and ears can make a hell of a difference between suffering and soaring thru motherhood.

Contact your senator. Let them know you expect their support for The MOTHERS Act and help obtain education, prevention, treatment and support for at least, as Tracy calls it, "just one chapter of maternal depression".

Hey, approving The MOTHERS Act would be one small step for our lawmakers and one giant leap for mom-kind!