Courageous Mothers

Brooke Shields:
For too long, women and families have had to suffer in silence. Postpartum Depression is an illness. It is a serious disease that affects not just mothers, but entire families as well as loved ones. 

For a long time I refused to believe I had Postpartum Depression. Thankfully, I was made to admit it and to get help. Women should not feel ashamed or in any way at fault, nor should they or their partners feel the need to "power-through" such a devastating affliction without the help of family, friends and the guidance of a medical professional. 

There is a tremendous lack of screening by OBs for Postpartum Depression. I encourage women and healthcare providers to insist on screening for Postpartum Depression. Even without any family history or obvious predisposition to Postpartum Depression, a woman can be attacked by this debilitating disease. It's up to us to recognize the symptoms and take the initiative to seek the help and the treatment that is available and individually appropriate. 

If you feel you are at risk for if someone you know or love appears to be suffering, please, please, please speak up. Ask for help and information. Being proactive can be the difference between life and death. 

Thank you to Dr. and Mrs. Charles Mudd. Their experience serves as a reminder that untreated, Postpartum Depression can have a devastating outcome. My prayers are with them and my heart goes out to them and to the countless others who have suffered needlessly. I thank Dr. Charles and Joan Mudd and Chaz and Roger Ebert for their crusade to educate and help others.

Connie:
Your daughter's story has touched me because I too suffered severely with PPD, to the point that I was considering committing suicide. Here I am four years later, grateful to have survived but also shocked that some women don't.  

I understand intimately what goes through a person's mind when they get to that point of darkness…when our reality becomes so distorted that we think that ending our life will benefit everyone and end our suffering. And why I now speak about it every opportunity I get so that other's shames surrounding PPD can be recognized and hopefully healed.

Right up to reading your daughter's story, I thought that whatever battles that the U.S. was fighting for recognition of the illness was not my own battle...what happens in the U.S. is separate from Canada. That couldn't be farther from the truth I now realize. PPD is universal, and ANY effort to bring this devastating illness to the forefront of the medical and government agendas is crucial to all of us who are working in the field to help women and their families survive it.