| 888-404-PPMD (7763) |
PSI of WA's support line is for mothers, families and professionals seeking support, information and resources. Volunteers return calls throughout the day. You also can visit PSI of WA at www.ppmdsupport.com. |
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"Speak Up" Needs State Funding |
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We need your help to ensure continued funding for the state's "Speak Up When You're Down" Campaign! Here are a few talking points for your legislators (go to "Find Your Legislator" here: www.leg.wa.gov):
- It costs about one dollar for every birth statewide, or $170,000 for two years.
- Up to 80 percent of mothers experience some form of baby blues, and 15 to 20 percent experience a postpartum mood disorder.
- The campaign has boosted the number of families receiving important information and referrals by 34%.
- This four-year-old program needs continued (not new) funding to pay for English and Spanish brochures, public service advertising, outreach and training.
Please contact Linda McDaniels if you are willing to make a few quick calls to the Legislative Hotline (800.562.6000), often with a one-line message such as, "Please ensure continued funding for the 'Speak Up When You're Down' Campaign in the House Budget."
Linda is Associate Director of Parent Trust for Washington Children and can be reached at 206.233.0156, Ext. 224, and lmcdaniels@parenttrust.org. |
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| Experiencing Old Family Patterns |
When we become parents, relationship issues from our childhood families often become apparent. Problems with low self esteem, trust, boundaries and cutting ourselves off can appear when we are least able to resolve them. Rather than try to fix it immediately, new parents should spend the first six months after a baby is born making sure they get enough sleep and keeping themselves healthy. It's a good time to be aware of what's happening psychologically, said Heidi Koss-Nobel, an advisor to the board of PSI of WA and its incoming chair.
"You might notice you're recreating your parents' dynamic with your partner, which might not have ever happened before," she said. "Now that you have a baby forming a triangle in the nuclear family unit, you might notice changes in how you interact."
For example, if your family members relieved anxiety by bringing in a third person instead of approaching issues directly, you might call your sister to discuss a problem with your husband instead of working it out with him.
New parents' need to focus on the baby can divert marital issues and cause them to avoid intimacy. People sometimes use their exhaustion as a permanent crutch. Others suddenly revert to rules and roles from their childhood families - for example, a woman who has always worked and never had trouble discussing money with her husband might lose touch with financial issues, like her mother did, after spending a few months at home in a more traditional domestic role.
A new baby can spark family patterns of overfunctioning and underfunctioning. "That's where people get into a vicious cycle of one person cleaning the house and resenting it, even though it drives them crazy to be in a dirty house, and the other one being enabled not to do it because they can see it will get done without them," Koss-Nobel said.
Mothers with postpartum depression often have an especially difficult time recognizing behavior that comes from their childhood families. For example, a mother with PPMD who is anxious and obsessive compulsive might insist her partner isn't diapering or dressing the baby properly. Eventually, the partner will give up and relinquish his parenting role, leaving both parents resentful.
"In the postpartum period, we're really vulnerable," she said."We are looking to our parents for mentoring. It's common to revert back to old roles while trying to figure out a new role."
When parents do things they never thought they would, like stonewalling or criticizing their partner or spanking their child, they're often reverting to behavior they learned from their own parents. "When you are stressed, that's what you fall back on," Koss-Nobel said. "If you can recognize where the behavior is coming from and why you're doing it, you can then step out of it and do something different."
To achieve that degree of recognition, it's useful to practice self-calming techniques like breathing slowly, taking 20 minutes to calm down and using mindfulness to notice when you are becoming overwhelmed.
New parents also sometimes discover boundary issues, like refusing to talk about problems and avoiding conflict. At the opposite extreme, some people seek constant reassurance or become hypervigilant about the baby. "Instead of healthy attachment parenting, they practice Velcro parenting," Koss-Nobel said. "Healthy boundaries are more permeable, with parents attending to the baby's needs but letting the baby self soothe when it becomes capable."
After the initial triage period - the first six months or so - parents who notice issues should consider taking time to explore what's happening either alone or in therapy. Role playing helps people learn how to behave differently, as does creating genograms, which is similar to a family tree but looks at patterns of behaviors and issues passed through generations.
For more information: HeidiKossNobel.com, CherylCebula.com and MindfulTherapyCenter.com.
Note: Koss-Nobel, who was PSI of WA's chair for 3.5 years, will return to that role in January. She is a psychotherapist in private practice in Redmond, specializing in pregnancy, postpartum and parenting issues. She took a leave of absence from the board in the summer of 2007 to earn her Master's Degree in Applied Behavioral Science through the counseling program at Bastyr University's Leadership Institute of Seattle. Before going back to school, Koss-Nobel was a postpartum doula and lactation educator for 11 years. She has volunteered for PSI of WA since 1997. |
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News from the Board |
The PSI Board is putting together new protocols for training therapists to be on our referral list, and we are establishing a mentoring program to train more therapists to treat women with postpartum mood disorders.
We welcome Jody Crowe to the board as Marketing Director. She is eagerly attacking the work of ensuring that more care providers and new moms are aware of our organization and the services we provide.
We are nearing an end to the revision of our Beyond The Birth booklets and look forward to a new release in early 2009. We can always use more volunteers for that kind of project and others! Currently, we need to fill the positions of Volunteer Coordinator, Support Group Coordinator and Secretary.
I will step down in January after 14 months as the Interim Chair to hand the reins back to Heidi Koss-Nobel. I expect to stay on the board for a few more months to assure a smooth transition. The past year has been an amazing time of growth and togetherness as I've watched the volunteers of PSI come together to steer PSI through a time of transition.
I'm looking forward to the Board Retreat in January, when we will make decisions about exactly how to take PSI to the next level in reaching even more women and helping them overcome the challenges of PPMD's.
Thank you all for your support of PSI!
Melinda Ferguson CD, PCD (DONA, PALS, NAPS)
Interim-Chair, PSI of WA |
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To advertise in Postpartum Times, please e-mail newsletter@ppmdsupport.com. The newsletter reaches more than 500 subscribers, and ads cost $100 for four online issues. | |
| Become a Member |
 PSI of WA is a non-profit organization that provides personal support for women with postpartum mood disorders and their families. It strives to educate the public, families and health care practitioners about the nature and management of these disorders through conferences, networking and special publications. Benefits of membership include: Quarterly e-newsletters, opportunities to network with professionals in related fields, ability for qualified Professional Members to be listed in a directory that is sent to agencies statewide, used by volunteers on the phone support line and posted on PSI of WA's web site.
Membership is available at two levels: Professional ($100/year) and Supporting ($50/year) and runs September through August. For more information, see www.ppmdsupport.com or leave a message at 888-404-PPMD (7763). |
| Request for referrals and volunteers |
Request for referrals: PSI of WA is working to build its referral list of care providers outside the Seattle area. If you know someone who should be included, please let us know by contacting our membership coordinator, Shannon Armitage: lifetransitions@gmail.com.
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PSI of WA always needs volunteers for the telephone support line and a host of other activities. To learn more, please call 888-404-PPMD (7763) or contact Kelli Hancock at 253-224-0509. | | |
