Interview with Kristina Dunley: My Story of Postpartum Psychosis

Speaker 1: 0:10

Hey guys, welcome back to the Preview Alliance podcast. This is Sarah, and before we dive into this episode, I introduced our very special guest. I just want to do a trigger warning for anybody that's listening. Today's topics are we're going to talk about postpartum psychosis and we're going to hear from a survivor, and these topics can be triggering and hard. So if you are not in the mental space right now there's littles in the car If you're just kind of in a space of where maybe life is just not giving you a break and you're just not ready to hear a story that is true and honest and it happens, take a pause, come back to us when you are. So just that little warning with you guys, but, as always, it's a safe space for you. So if you're ready, let's dive right in. Hi, christina, welcome.

Speaker 2: 1:02

So great to be here.

Speaker 1: 1:03

Thanks for having me, oh it's so great to be here. Thanks for having me Well, I have known you for a little bit and to our moms and listeners who have not heard of you yet, which, by the time this episode airs, you will have received an award, so I'm sure your name will be borne known. But please give everybody just a little intro about you and what brings you here today.

Speaker 2: 1:24

Yeah, absolutely, I'm happy to do that. So I am Christina Delaney and I am a wife and a mom of two beautiful little girls. We currently live in East Tennessee. I'm originally from Raleigh, north Carolina, and I am here because of the lived experience I had with postpartum psychosis about eight or nine years ago Certainly not something my family and I had prepared for or even had heard anything about. So I really just share my story to help others and educate and raise awareness around perinatal mental health conditions, but, more specifically, postpartum psychosis.

Speaker 1: 2:06

And both of us are nurses and I can say this I don't remember in nursing school or any of my nursing experience, being taught really about perinatal mood, anxiety disorders, when we're talking about depression, anxiety and pregnancy and postpartum let alone postpartum psychosis. Do you remember any of that education?

Speaker 2: 2:22

let alone postpartum psychosis. Do you remember any of that education? No, I definitely do not, and I think maybe just a touch of postpartum depression, but it was a blanket postpartum depression. It wasn't all of the mood or anxiety disorders. But of course this was also several years ago and I would hope things have changed by now. But even when I followed up with my OBGYN after the fact because that's something I wanted to do I told him, you know, even as a registered nurse, I hadn't heard about postpartum psychosis and really knew very little about postpartum depression, and his response to me was that's a heck of a way to find out about it.

Speaker 2: 2:59

And so that really didn't affect me until a couple of years after that, just to realize that that statement alone is not OK and to have to find out about it that way isn't OK either, and I don't want other families to be blindsided and to be aware of the, of what to look for and the resources, and you know that a mother is not acting herself and really needs help.

Speaker 1: 3:33

And you know this has been a tough year. Even past two years have been really tough in the conversation of postpartum psychosis because we have heard in the news tragedies of you know mom and children with this and so it's very important for us to have your voice on who is a survivor and that we want listeners to recognize. You know this is an emergency medical condition we treat we should treat this the same as stroke, heart attack, where we know the signs and symptoms, we get this person immediate help and I always say you never blame someone for a heart attack right, or shame them or expect them to get themselves all 911. So we need to have a conversation to turn the tables to say let's treat perineal mood anxiety disorders, especially postpartum psychoses, the same.

Speaker 2: 4:27

Right, absolutely, I 100% agree, and I think, for survivors as a whole, any of us, when those tragedies do happen, can easily think and know and understand that that could have been me, it could have been our family. There's not much that separates us from that outcome and I think too often that and I've even experienced this myself and wanting to share my story. Providers or professionals or birth workers they do not want to scare moms and when we're talking about maternal mortality and what can happen during a birth, that's already scary enough and I get that. But families have to be aware or these tragedies will keep happening and I fully believe that the more we educate, talk about it and raise awareness around it, we can reduce the trauma and tragedy that occurs with all perinatal mental health conditions, but specifically postpartum psychosis.

Speaker 1: 5:31

I think that's a good point to kind of dive into your story and just give our listeners kind of the journey of you know what your experience was like with postpartum psychosis and your families.

Speaker 2: 5:44

Yeah experience was like with postpartum psychosis in your families, yeah. So, kind of going back to the beginning, we went to a reproductive endocrinologist to get pregnant or get assistance getting pregnant with our first child, and through that it was a wonderful pregnancy experience Not many or, if any, complications. I did have an emergency C-section that I certainly was not planning for. I was planning for a natural birth and that recovery obviously looked much different. And the postpartum period, looking back, I had undiagnosed depression and anxiety. I also had nurses.

Speaker 2: 6:23

I was blessed to have nurses coming out to my home I don't think they came that often, but it was a primary focus on our baby and I do not remember ever getting screened and so we thought we would have to get assistance to get pregnant again. We did not. Sometimes I still wonder how that happened, but we surprisingly got pregnant very unexpectedly and it was about when my oldest was a year and a half Well, no earlier than that, anyway. So it was an unexpected pregnancy and I share all these things, just so you can see the risk factors that were ever so In my head I'm seeing it bing, bing, bing, right Because I'm already for our listeners.

Speaker 1: 7:11

From my knowledge I'm hearing, is infertility, if you're having reproductive health, endocrinologist risk, emergency C-sections, traumatic births essentially. Emergency C-sections, traumatic births essentially. When we say unplanned pregnancies too, in some sense of it's unexpected, not, and not saying not unwanted, just the timing and the way about it and often, sometimes even close together the stress level of adding in more on your family. So me knowing this now, as someone who's done a lot of research in this field but I didn't know any of this before. You know I've lived this experience. I'm sure you didn't either. So that is, I thank you for really breaking that down in your story because it gives us a pause to say most women don't even know their risk factors for perinatal mood anxiety disorders.

Speaker 2: 8:03

Yeah, absolutely, and I think that's a huge area to fill a gap and understand what these risk factors are. And we're not talking about risk factors for postpartum psychosis, we're talking about risk factors for any of the perinatal mental health conditions. So when I got pregnant with our second again it was unexpected, certainly still wanted, we were very excited about it. But when we got pregnant we made the choice to prepare to move to Tennessee and that was where my husband's family is from and there was just more support there. So we prepared to move and that included selling our first home that we had bought and moving into a townhouse which was a very much smaller space, and so again, that was a risk factor there as well. And so during my pregnancy it wasn't as easy as the first. During my pregnancy it wasn't as easy as the first and I had some complications that I can see now were, I would say, 95% most likely anxiety, and I had palpitations and high heart rate and I went to the cardiologist to get everything under the sun rolled out and make sure everything was okay. But nobody ever mentioned it could be anxiety and what I could do about that if it was. And so I was even hospitalized around eight months and was very close to having to have an early delivery at that point because what I think of it now as a severe anxiety attack, and I think that, because I was diagnosed with a kidney infection, was given one round of IV antibiotics and the signs and symptoms went away, and usually with a kidney infection that doesn't quite happen that quickly. So I think it was a severe anxiety attack. So we deliver. We have a planned C-section, which was so much. It was a much better experience than our first. I got to do skin to skin after the C-section, which was lovely and wonderful. Our youngest never left me except to get maybe a two minute check by the pediatrician and whatever, and so that it was a much different experience and that's how I wanted it. And again, looking back, and that's how I wanted it. And again looking back, I definitely had postpartum depression, anxiety again undiagnosed, and I think as nurses too I'm just going to throw this in there that I think that sometimes providers think we should know, I think we should understand. So maybe these things aren't talked about during our visits, when maybe they're talked about during other visits with other people, I don't know, but I think there's a little bit of that too.

Speaker 2: 10:48

And so around five and a half months postpartum, the week leading up to when I went severely outside of reality, I was very, I would say, manic, very on cloud nine, feeling like I was untouchable, I was hyper religious and nobody noticed. I think there were some things. Looking back, some of my friends, and definitely my husband, were like why didn't I catch on to this when? How would we have known to be, even to even be able to catch on to it? But it was very easy to catch on when it went very awry on that Friday afternoon and I was very outside of reality, thinking Jesus was returning, grabbing up my kids as they were napping, to say please save them, please save our family. And when my husband came into the room at that time he was like, what are you doing? And I said I'm praying.

Speaker 2: 11:42

And at that time I passed out and I didn't truly pass out. My mind was making me pass out. It's just, it's amazing how this illness truly just infiltrates everything and things are uncontrollable, all thought processes are lost and it's an incredible, very misunderstood disease. So at that point my husband is in the healthcare field too and he called 911 because he knew something was wrong and all the ambulance came, the fire truck came, all their supervisors came, because when you call for a psychiatric event you get all the people, and being in a townhouse at that time is very tight quarters and so I got taken to the ER and, thankfully, everything was of my own choosing. I had to have a lot of convincing to not be. I can't think of the word I'm looking for.

Speaker 1: 12:36

Restrained, or where is it? Did they section you To not be committed?

Speaker 2: 12:41

Even looking back, that was incredibly important, even for my nursing license, to not have to go through all that. So my husband was very good at convincing and being so patient with that knowledge that he did not want that additional paperwork and everything. And after it was all said and done. But I ended up staying two or three nights in the psychiatric ER. But I ended up staying two or three nights in the psychiatric ER and they did not prepare my husband that he was not going to be able to stay with me. So he ended up sleeping in his truck in the parking lot for that first night because at that time he had no idea what was going on and there were times I didn't even know who he was and was calling him the wrong name. So from a partner perspective, you know, we always say, or I like to say, it's a family disease, it's not just the mom going through it, it's the entire family unit. And so I ended up being transferred to the general psychiatric unit. And just a side note, my husband at that time worked at this healthcare facility. So there were additional precautionary measures just to keep my everything secure and safe. So they had to put triple X on my armband because that's what their processes were and that just that, just little things like that just did not help my confusion and disorientation and paranoia. But I ended up spending two weeks on the general psychiatric unit with a 24-7 sitter pretty much the entire time, and at that unit, when you have a 24-7 sitter, you have to stay on the floor. You can't go off the unit to eat, you can't go off the unit to go outside, while everybody else who was on the unit goes off the unit to do all those things. So when I got home I was very weak, had a hard time even going up and downstairs because for two weeks I was only walking very minimally, not going outside and doing usual activities. But it was a very, very scary time. But it was also absolutely necessary for me to get that help, even though I did not like being there. But I got treated with antidepressants and antipsychotic and occasional injection to calm me down and a lot of this I don't actually remember and it's my family and my husband telling me or I have gotten my record since then too. But yeah, it was a very scary time.

Speaker 2: 15:20

When I got discharged I did not have a discharge meeting and I thought that was inappropriate, especially looking back seeing how beneficial it would have been. But then I went to an intensive outpatient program which was three hours of group therapy every day, which I was not a big fan of, and still on these very new medications that my body was getting used to. And there was no discussion then either about the risks involved there. So almost exactly two weeks after I was discharged I did try to jump out of my husband's truck.

Speaker 2: 15:55

I was just very angry and very irritated by all the stipulations that I had because I couldn't go back to work, I couldn't drive, I couldn't be with my kids by myself, I couldn't be by myself. There's just so much that I couldn't do and that additional measures put in place to keep me and everybody around me safe. So when that happened I had to go back to get another evaluation and they ended up sending me home saying I was okay as long as someone was with me all the time, and they ended up taking or suggesting all the knives being hidden from me and the one gun we had in the house was taken out of the house.

Speaker 1: 16:38

That's a lot. No, that's a lot, and thank you for sharing it. And I know it opens old wounds. It's hard and you know the thing about this is none of this was your fault. You did nothing wrong, and I know it probably feels still just like why and someone should have told you guys, someone should have caught on earlier. It should have been discussion and we this is the you know I do.

Speaker 1: 17:09

I was a VA nurse for many moons and they always said you know, talking about suicide or asking someone if they're suicidal will never make them more suicidal and we have to get comfortable with the uncomfortable conversations, like you said earlier, of talking about this, of like who. It is not something we want to think about when we get pregnant that we could become so depressed. We want to think about when we get pregnant that we could become so depressed we want to kill ourselves or we could have postpartum psychosis, where we do things that is not us and the tragedy does happen, but it's, I feel like it's so much more important than planning a nursery is to have which people are going to be fixated on is well what? What's my nursery going to look like? It's like, how are we going to know if mom's not okay. So these conversations and these stories, I really appreciate it.

Speaker 1: 18:05

It's hard because I feel the same way you feel Sometimes. Talking about my deepest, darkest times still hurts because it's in us, right, we carry that trauma. So again, I'm really grateful that you're letting us hear what horrible things you had to endure in your family. But the work you have been doing is changing lives and for our listeners. So Christina has made it her life and platform to advocate and share her story, which it is not easy to share, your story, and it is not easy to say I did these things, I experienced this, and in our society there's a backlash almost for being honest and open about your mental health, especially moms.

Speaker 1: 18:53

Right, especially in the South, we're all supposed to just be blessed and have our children and that be all we need to talk about, and that's not the reality. One, at least one in three moms now post-COVID will experience depression or anxiety, and postpartum psychosis is more rare. Correct me if my statistics are wrong, but I want to say it's like one to 2% of moms, which there's a lot of moms giving birth every day. So you may say, well, that's a small number. That's really not a small number.

Speaker 2: 19:23

No, it's really not, and we don't. We don't like to use the term rare, because I really think that statistic is misleading too, because it's just a statistic and I think there's so many more that are unaccounted for, because that number of one to two and a thousand really only includes the first three months postpartum, when there are so many survivors that have had it in that first year people talk about that right, because you know, even traditional, just if you do see information about postpartum psychosis.

Speaker 1: 19:59

I think they generally kind of put it in that first month and so I'm glad we're having this part of conversation that it can't happen anytime, that first year of and I do think probably the worst outcomes occur later generally. Sometimes too, because it keeps building and building, and building.

Speaker 3: 20:22

Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1: 20:23

So then you have two like a double-edged sword right, like it's not known. If it does know, then they just label it to the short amount of time, so when she is experiencing this later in postpartum. So my postpartum depression was four months. Postpartum was my worst, right, and you know I've had providers say you'll be fine if you make it through the first month, and it's just like whoa, and this is also a good point to say. You know, this is why we emphasize that first year of postpartum she should be screened, she should be checked in on, she should be provided early intervention and treatment, because the highest rate of suicide and overdose is nine to 12 months postpartum Right, exactly, and that's that. Did not come out of nowhere, right? That that, and so it's again getting comfortable with the uncomfortable. But if we do not talk about it, like you said earlier, it'll never change.

Speaker 2: 21:17

Yeah, no, you're absolutely right, and I think the getting comfortable with being uncomfortable, these stories talking about suicide, talking about just difficult stuff, it's not fun. But if we don't do it fun. But if we don't do it, who is? And it being able to ask those questions, no, it's not going to put new thoughts in somebody's head because they're probably already having them. And it could be life-saving because even if your uncomfort is sitting there in silence, letting someone talk to you and asking the hard questions, even when we may not know the answers, that's okay, it's a start and it's needed. And if we don't give the screening because we don't know what to do with those answers, that's the wrong answer. We should be screening no matter what, and not just screening, not just handing somebody a piece of paper, but having the conversations, getting to know more information and sitting in that discomfort for a little bit. So, yeah, I think that's really, really important.

Speaker 1: 22:34

What, looking back now, what if a provider was to speak to you and your husband right Before let's say this is a reproductive endocrinologist if they could have had some words of wisdom for you, for all of this? That would have helped prepare and identify early symptoms. What in your idea would then? You know, because listeners are like okay, so what would you tell us? Like what should that doctor have told you? What could have a nurse along the way told you? That would have helped you guys become aware of not just postpartum psychosis but just perinatal anxiety disorders.

Speaker 2: 23:10

Yeah, I think the risk factors is huge because that's an opportunity before you even get pregnant and to keep having those conversations at each and every visit. What happened in the last month? That what happened? If there's another risk factor to add and I'll never know if my experience could have been prevented Sometimes I would like to think that it could have, with just a few conversations, a little digging deeper and an absolute diagnosis of anxiety during pregnancy. But I think the risk factors are really important.

Speaker 2: 23:43

I think having conversations around the signs and symptoms of what to look for and what to do if you have any of the signs and symptoms of depression, anxiety, and not just with the mom, but with the entire family, but the main support person for that mom what are things we can look for and what do we do if I think those are really crucial conversations and I don't think screening should be foregoed.

Speaker 2: 24:12

I think that's a really important step, even if there aren't many resources, but now there's a resource for everybody and the National Maternal Mental Health Hotline is one that's available 24-7. And so I think just having those conversations, the risk factors, the signs and symptoms to look out for what do we do if it happens and not staring away from those conversations because we don't want to scare somebody. And mentioning postpartum psychosis Don't let moms go Google and find out or on Dr Google, I mean let's talk about and say the truth of those things and and and the statistics, but also not treat it like it's it's not going to happen, because it can happen to anybody, despite what the risk factors are, despite how well prepared you are. It can still happen. But I think the most important thing is to be aware and know what to do.

Speaker 1: 25:07

So let's just go over some of the signs and symptoms, because if listeners are saying, yes, I want to be educated on this because it's and I always say it's you know, everybody go back to stroke and heart attack a lot when I'm describing perinatal mood anxiety disorders, because people are comfortable with that and it's like in stroke and heart attack can end in tragedy, you know. So it's like we have to just treat it the same. But, like you said, you're hyper-religious. That is something that we hear a lot. Did you?

Speaker 2: 25:35

do you remember hearing voices or commands with that, or I think that more of my hallucinations either hearing things or seeing things happened while I was in the unit. Before that it was really paranoia, a lot of paranoia. And again being in that, in outside of reality, not, and again being in that, in outside of reality, not thinking clearly, saying things I normally wouldn't say, doing things I normally wouldn't do, but mainly the hallucinations weren't so impatient, but I did experience them, actually broke my glasses.

Speaker 3: 26:10

Well, you broke your glasses, oh, okay.

Speaker 1: 26:12

Somebody was talking to me through them, so Well, which seems like a reasonable response to me them so well, which seems like a reasonable response to me. If you think you know, if you think somebody's talking through your glasses, yeah, you're just going to get rid of that, right. And then the up and down, kind of like you described, like you're super, like on top of the world. So if you, if you're hearing this, so you're hearing the mom is going to be more paranoid than I will say, and this is where people get messed up and it's a gray zone. It's like, well, she's a new mom, she's paranoid, something's going to happen to her baby. Well, this is that other level of like you said Jesus was coming back. It was you, you know impatient, was the glasses, was talking to you. The hallucinations, the up and down just doing things that you're like that's not her and clearly having no really explanation behind it. And again, we're talking about this is in postpartum anytime between birth and a year after and with postpartum psychosis it is going to rollercoaster quickly or snowball is probably a better word into it. So she's not going to get back out of it. It's going to be escalating here.

Speaker 1: 27:19

And if you're recognizing this in someone, you need to know this isn't a medical emergency, so you need to go to an ER or a mental health ER. Situation In the South. It is very difficult because we do not have in some places do in the United States emergency rooms, inpatient units or outpatient units that are made for moms, because so many moms experience perinatal mood anxiety disorders so they have safe places for moms to go. The unfortunate reality is our listeners who are listening, that's probably not in their neighborhood. So we are saying go to an ER and if you feel unsafe transporting this person to the ER, you can call 911.

Speaker 1: 28:12

And yeah, it is something I think healthcare providers should hit on this too. I think we know a lot of the game too, so we can say we're okay when we're not okay and we know how to answer certain questions. And you're right, we, I think, in general. I was told this too, you know, after I'd had severe postpartum depression and I was scared to death, pregnant again, I said I don't want to, I'm very scared. He said, well, you got through it before, you'll be fine again, you know. So then it's the providers, it's the healthcare workers, it's friends and family who make comments that really are hurtful and don't give you resources. They shut you down and make you feel like it's a you thing and to talk on a couple of things.

Speaker 2: 29:04

I think it's really. It can be really hard to pick up on those early signs and moms can easily go in and outside of reality. They can even look incredibly normal to an outsider. And even that morning that it happened, I went and sat in front of my pastor at the time because, honestly, I thought he was about to die, but I had a completely normal conversation and I thought I was okay. I didn't think he was okay and he did not catch on to any of that.

Speaker 2: 29:38

So I think it's very easy for a mother to act like she's fine, even when she's not, and I mean not just, oh yeah, I'm fine. I mean there's things going on and we could pick up on little things. But from an outside perspective it's still very difficult. And you're right, the treatment options in the United States are not adequate to take care of these psychiatric emergencies. I mean, our counterparts in the UK have dozens of mother-baby units now and we have none that are as close as we can get maybe four now, but they're in North Carolina, new York and California. I think there may be one in Arizona now, but that's not enough to take care of moms, and I think that's another desperate need we need here in the United States is those options in every state, in every town or at least driving distance. But you know if the closest thing is either psychiatric ER or ER itself, when you need the help, you need the help and we've got to accept it.

Speaker 1: 30:54

So I want to go back to what you touched on about how you know you had a conversation with your preacher. He didn't know anything was different, and so that I hope, when this because this frustrates me a lot about when you do hear the tragedies in the news and you hear different people in their life account for how they were that day or leading up to it, you know, and it's well, I saw her do this and this was totally normal. I saw this and or she had this conversation with me and then it really just shows that this intensive, misunderstood medical emergency that is affecting the brain is so powerful in the in and out. It is not as obvious as someone grasping their chest right, right, or their face going numb, and that is what's hard. Right, because it's, yes, we're talking about in the same thing.

Speaker 1: 31:49

I keep going back to stroke and heart attack but it's, you've got to dig deeper and it's like what you said earlier it's probably going to be the person that spends the most time with her who's going to notice initially, right, and it's so. It's the partners. It's the partners, it's the. You know. If it's, if you don't have a partner, maybe it's your mother. Is it your best friend, right, and when they do share, you do notice, okay, well, that Sarah doesn't usually say that or that's abnormal for Sarah dial in Like you're never going to get, you're never going to be wrong in checking in on someone, you know. So the worst case, you, she's totally fine, and you, you know, you just have this conversation, I'm checking in on you, you know, best case, you catch it super early.

Speaker 1: 32:37

So that is something I think that people just don't get. They're like, well, how could she be okay right here, right, not that I think. If you've never experienced a mental health illness which I had never, I had no depression or anxiety, you know I was never diagnosed. So I think it's hard and, to be truthful, till you know I've said this before, you would hear about things and you'd go, oh man, like I just don't get that you know. Or you know people, I've heard people be like, well, couldn't you snap out of it? Or you know what do you mean? You weren't in reality and really, until you've lived it, you realize like you have no control of that.

Speaker 2: 33:16

You need help, you need medications, you need doctors.

Speaker 2: 33:26

Absolutely, I a hundred percent agree, and I think it's very understood that this illness causes a lot of questions, a lot of doubt, a lot of very misunderstood questions and comments, especially when tragedies happen and I always try to tell people you know, I was there I used to think the same thing, like how can this happen?

Speaker 2: 33:42

But it's hard to even try to understand without going through it. So I I don't, you know, blame anybody for not understanding because it's so difficult, and I understand that I used to think the same things before I had it. But until you've seen it firsthand or been through it, it's very hard and it's just. It's an incredible disease that just infiltrates into every fiber of your being where you will not even know what's going on and be able to act completely normal to some, to most around you, despite the urgent need to need that help and to be able to get better. But it's an incredible illness, very misunderstood, under-researched, underfunded, and until we keep digging into that research and trying to understand more, unfortunately I think the trauma and tragedy will continue to exist.

Speaker 1: 34:47

I always say I feel like if men experience these things, we probably would have a cure by now you know, so I think it goes back to women in general, especially pregnant women and postpartum women.

Speaker 1: 34:59

Like you hit it, we are under-researched, underfunded and the conversations simply just don't happen. But I am very thankful that you shared with us your story and tell listeners if they want to dive deeper, if they want to start educating themselves more, where can they kind of turn? Where do you tell moms who come to you and they say pregnant, I want to be educated on this? When I have conversations with my providers does it seem to help me? Where can they kind of start?

Speaker 2: 35:28

Yeah, absolutely so.

Speaker 2: 35:31

I think there's a lot more resources now than there used to be.

Speaker 2: 35:35

First, if you're struggling, there's the Maternal Mental Health Hotline that is available 24-7, call or text Very knowledgeable counselors that can help support you and provide you resources if you need it.

Speaker 2: 35:48

From an educational standpoint, postpartum Support International is a wonderful organization that has a lot of information on their website, and I also started a nonprofit of my own Cherished Mom, and it was mainly to be able to educate moms and families around all the maternal mental health conditions. You can check that out. A lot of the information really hasn't changed because it's the same, and we also have Postpartum Psychosis Awareness Day, which is the first Friday of every May, and you can check out our website too. We have a lot of information and resources there and, yeah, feel free to get in touch with me too. I try to be as responsive as I can be, but I'm a busy mom as well. But I think, thankfully, we have many more resources than we used to, and I also think the conversations around all the perinatal mental health conditions are shifting and there's more awareness happening, which is never ever a bad thing.

Speaker 1: 36:46

No, the more we always say, you start sharing and you will hear me too, I experienced it. Thank you for sharing. Or sometimes you'll just see the face and nods and you know that it's they've experienced it or someone their loved one has. And again, I think your story is power, it's strength and you are a survivor and you're a wonderful advocate and I know this moms to come are going to be better because of you, and I appreciate that. So thank you for everything you do, and we always ask this on a different note, all our guests. This does not have to be mental health based, by any means. What would you tell yourself now that you're a mom, when you found that first pregnancy test? What do you wish you would know about motherhood?

Speaker 2: 37:39

Oh gosh, so much I wish I would have known. You know, I would say first, it's OK to not be OK and it's also OK to accept and ask for help. I think, especially being in the South and I still have an issue to this day of asking for help but I think being able to speak up, get the help we need and ask for it, we need to normalize that and normalize again just speaking up, normalizing the asking for help, and that it's OK to do that and accept it when it's offered.

Speaker 1: 38:19

I love that. We can all use that. We all need that. I myself need reminded that too. That is, there's no need to be a superhero.

Speaker 2: 38:29

Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1: 38:31

Oh, Christina, we adore you, we thank you. We'll link everything for our listeners. So if you didn't catch any, some of those resources, we'll link where you can find Christina. Again, the Maternal Mental Health Hotline Fabulous, fabulous, free support. No matter where you're at in the United States, you can call or text. We'll put that in our notes. But thank you, listeners, for hanging in there with us. Again, we're getting comfortable with the uncomfortable and that's how we're going to change. So we will be back with you guys next week. Have a wonderful week.

Speaker 3: 39:02

Maternal Mental Health is as important as physical health. The Preview Alliance podcast week. Have a wonderful week, whitney Gay. Each episode focuses on specific issues relevant to pregnancy and postpartum. Join us and hear how other moms have overcome mental health challenges, as well as access tips and suggestions on dealing with your own challenges as moms. You can also browse our podcast library and listen to previous episodes at any time. Please know you're not alone on this journey. We're here to help.