Hi friends.
I wanted to take a second to introduce myself more personally & start a conversation about something really important & super personal to me (not for long).
Here’s some backstory:
I’m a mom of 2 beautiful, strong-willed children ages 2 ½ and 7. Almost immediately following the birth of my 1st child I struggled with mood & anxiety, but I attributed a lot of my experience to the fact that I was a first time mom & that my dad was terminally ill (he died a day after my son’s ½ birthday). Even though having a child was the hardest thing we’d ever done, my husband & I loved being parents. Even so, we told everyone we were “one and done” with kids (I go back to my 1st point, parenting was HARD). Anyways, we decided about 2 years later to start trying for baby #2. I share this because I think its important to stress how wanted our daughter was. It took some time (about 2 years) but we finally became pregnant our daughter and things felt perfect! I was finishing up my Nurse Practitioner program at U of T, I was working an awesome job at a GTA hospital as a Clinical Nurse Specialist in breast cancer, & things just felt good. Hectic… but good. We were managing despite our hectic schedules, our 5 year old son and my daily hour plus commute to work.
So, our beautiful, perfect girl arrived late September 2016 & I waited for the chips to fall. I was certain because of my experience with Brody that I’d experience some sort of postpartum mood disorder…
The weeks passed & I felt GREAT! I was shocked. My body felt good, and although I was exhausted, I didn’t feel unusually up or down mood-wise. I remember thinking to myself “thank God it didn’t happen this time!”
Then about 6 weeks postpartum it totally happened… I was blindsided. My life was changed forever & without trying to sound dramatic, I completely lost. Despite what I revealed outwardly, I was in a deep, dark hole and wouldn’t be able to start coming out of it until very recently.
So… I’ll stop there for now. I plan to share more in future posts but for now I wanted to share at least a high level introduction to my experience. I think it is so important to talk about as we far too often sugar coat this whole parenting/motherhood thing and set each other up for failure.
What we’re doing today
In addition to my personal recovery from this debilitating illness, Sierra & I have been reflecting a lot about our many passions while building this company & this is something that I just have to share.
The impacts of maternal mental health are significant and underappreciated. The sad reality is that SO MANY of us suffer and struggle silently and/or without necessary supports. Here are some facts about the issue:
Why we need to raise awareness & support Maternal Mental Health Awareness:
Rates across North Simcoe Muskoka are higher than the provincial average (23.8% in North Simcoe Muskoka vs. 16.9% across Ontario).
No one is immune! Women of every culture, age, income level and race can develop perinatal mood and anxiety disorders.
Symptoms can appear any time during pregnancy and the first 12 months after childbirth. There are effective and well-researched treatment options available to help women recover.
Without early screening and treatment, 50- 70% of women with perinatal mood disorders will continue to experience symptoms through the postpartum period & unfortunately up to 40% will still have symptoms 4-5 years post-delivery.
Mental illness in the perinatal period may negatively influence parenting practices such as bonding and attachment. As a result, children may experience cognitive, emotional and behavioural impairments increasing vulnerability at school and into adulthood.
The 1st week of May is World Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week & we at BE beauty & wellness are excited to be supporting the local efforts across our region.
During the week of April 29 - May 3 we will be raising awareness for World Maternal Mental Health Week all across North Simcoe Muskoka by joining walks all across our region. Moms, babies, family & friends are all invited to join us for a stroller walk to discuss, promote & support World Maternal Mental Health Week.
In Barrie the walk will be held on Monday, April 29th & a Facebook event has been created for more information.
What else you can do
We are reaching out to see if community agencies/businesses are interested in supporting the event by either:
Walking alongside all of us to support the cause.
Setting up a booth to provide information about your agency/business; or,
Donating items for prizes/giveaways (this can include services/gift certificates as well).
We must do more as a society & especially as women to educate and empower each other as well as advocate for more awareness and better support worldwide for all mothers/parents. We really hope to see many of you there… this event is gearing up to be even bigger than last year’s super successful walk!
If you are local & are planning on going or would like to donate to our prize raffles, please send us a message or email us!
Hope to see you there!
