Beyond Postpartum Depression

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Beyond Postpartum Depression

Beyond Postpartum Depression is a blog whose mission is awareness of perinatal mood and anxiety disorders and empowering survivors of PMADs.

09/07/2026

Let’s talk about mom guilt.

It’s that gnawing feeling that you should be doing more….more playing, more patience, more presence…even when you’re already stretched thin.

This summer is the first summer that my daughter has been home without childcare since she’s now in school. And I work remotely, so I thought “cool, we don’t have to pay for childcare! She can just hang out with me!”

Except…it’s way harder than I thought it would be. She’s bored. It’s been too dang hot to go outside (thanks, heat dome 🫠). I have meetings and tasks to get done. I feel like I’m not doing enough momming while also not doing enough work. It sucks. And I feel a lot of mom guilt (and regular guilt) over it all.

And here’s the thing: mom guilt can be a symptom of the impossible standards we set for ourselves, often amplified by postpartum and perinatal mental health challenges.

It doesn’t mean you’re failing. It means you love your child deeply AND you’re human.

This summer, if you’re trying to work, rest, parent, and hold it all together…give yourself the same compassion you’d offer a friend (I’m also trying to remember this. My husband reminded me to be nice to myself last night).

You are doing more than enough…and the mom guilt isn’t fair 💕

If you need help and support:
🌸 Call or text the National Maternal Mental Health Hotline at 1-833-852-6262
🌸 Call or text the Postpartum Support International HelpLine at 800-944-4773
🌸 For a crisis situation, call or text the National Su***de & Crisis Lifeline at 988

08/07/2026

It's been a rough couple days around here. So if you need some reminders on things you can do on hard days to make them a little less difficult (or just some things to keep in mind as you move forward into a new day), I'm right there with you.

Tomorrow is a fresh start 💕

If you need help and support:
🌸 Call or text the National Maternal Mental Health Hotline at 1-833-852-6262
🌸 Call or text the Postpartum Support International HelpLine at 800-944-4773
🌸 For a crisis situation, call or text the National Su***de & Crisis Lifeline at 988

05/07/2026

My very favorite book to share with anyone I know who is having a baby…Good Moms Have Scary Thoughts.

Because we do! Research shows that 70-100% of new moms report unwanted thoughts of infant-related harm. And the first time one of those thoughts pops into your head, you think that you’re one of the worst mothers in the whole world, because who would ever think something like that about their baby?!

Well….pretty much all of us. And they come from a place of anxiety, of our brain trying to be protective of our new baby (and for some of us, it’s perinatal OCD or our existing OCD taking on a new theme).

This book is so reassuring. If you don’t have a copy, you should get one. And share it with the new moms in your life. Because we should know more about what happens mentally after we have a baby, so we aren’t terrified when those thoughts happen and we don’t think there’s something wrong with us or that we’re the worst mom ever. Because we aren’t 💕

If you need help and support:
🌸 Call or text the National Maternal Mental Health Hotline at 1-833-852-6262
🌸 Call or text the Postpartum Support International HelpLine at 800-944-4773
🌸 For a crisis situation, call or text the National Su***de & Crisis Lifeline at 988

(Source: Collardeau, Fanie et al. “Maternal unwanted and intrusive thoughts of infant-related harm, obsessive-compulsive disorder and depression in the perinatal period: study protocol.” BMC psychiatry vol. 19,1 94. 21 Mar. 2019, doi:10.1186/s12888-019-2067-x)

04/07/2026

Perinatal mental health disorders are the most common complication of childbirth.

Yes, really. More common than gestational hypertension, pre-eclampsia, or gestational diabetes.

But just because they are common doesn’t mean they’re normal.

They are temporary, treatable, and you CAN get better 💕

If you need help and support:
🌸 Call or text the National Maternal Mental Health Hotline at 1-833-852-6262
🌸 Call or text the Postpartum Support International HelpLine at 800-944-4773
🌸 For a crisis situation, call or text the National Su***de & Crisis Lifeline at 988

03/07/2026

Very happy for my close personal friend, Taylor Swift, today 😉

But really, music can be comforting, and as someone who also finds healing and release through writing, I’ve related to a lot of her work and her songs and lyrics. This one seems to sum up my first postpartum experience…long story short, it was a bad time (reflux, colic, depression, anxiety, OCD, a pandemic), but long story short, I survived 💕

If you need help and support:
🌸 Call or text the National Maternal Mental Health Hotline at 1-833-852-6262
🌸 Call or text the Postpartum Support International HelpLine at 800-944-4773
🌸 For a crisis situation, call or text the National Su***de & Crisis Lifeline at 988

01/07/2026

In this house, we take our meds and we don’t feel ashamed of it 💁🏻‍♀️

I’ve taken an antidepressant since my PPD diagnosis, and I probably will for the rest of my life.

My antidepressant makes me a better mom and helps me feel like me. And that’s nothing to be ashamed of 💕

If you need help and support:
🌸 Call or text the National Maternal Mental Health Hotline at 1-833-852-6262
🌸 Call or text the Postpartum Support International HelpLine at 800-944-4773
🌸 For a crisis situation, call or text the National Su***de & Crisis Lifeline at 988

30/06/2026

It seemed like I heard it everywhere this past weekend at - that this work was a calling. That they were a survivor of a perinatal mental health disorder and it changed the trajectory of their career. That they became a therapist, a social worker, a provider, and advocate, a volunteer, because they wanted to make sure that no one else experienced what they did.

Postpartum depression and anxiety changed my life. Pre-motherhood me would have never believed the things that I’m doing now,

I am so grateful I get to do this work and that I get to be part of the staff at Postpartum Support International work with incredibly passionate, talented, supportive, hilarious, wonderful people who are also some of my best friends.

I love this work. I love these people. I love this conference. I love this organization. And I love the difference we are making in the lives of new parents.

You are not alone. You are not to blame. With help, you WILL be well 💕

29/06/2026

Today I got to take the very first full day Advanced Postpartum Psychosis Training offered by Postpartum Support International at ! It was a very emotionally hard but necessary training and we MUST do better to destigmatize and demystify postpartum psychosis. Mothers and birthing people who experience it deserve so much better, and I am so excited to see PSI take this training on the road and virtually so that more clinicians, mental health professionals, and anyone who serves the perinatal population can know what postpartum psychosis looks like so that moms and birthing people can get the help and treatment they need to recover.

It is a scary and traumatizing disorder. But it is temporary, treatable, and FULL RECOVERY is possible 🩷

24/06/2026

I am so excited to be headed to Los Angeles for PSICON2026! 🌴☀️ I can’t wait to see some sights, talk all things perinatal mental health, and see some of my very favorite people!

Will you be at PSICON? Come find me! I’ll be spending most of my time at the PSI Storytelling Booth! 💕

23/06/2026

When I was experiencing PPD and PPA, I was hiding it from everyone (except my husband, because he can read me better than anyone). I was pretending to be what I thought I should be - the overjoyed, happy, tired-but-still-oh-so-happy-new-mom.

And it was easy to pretend with the pandemic (probably the only easy part of the pandemic) because no one was seeing me in person…I was hiding behind my screen and posting pictures of my baby holding her head up, snoozing in my arms, looking at her play gym.

Because nobody posts when you’re crying in the shower, or when you can’t sleep because your thoughts won’t stop, or when you can’t get your baby to stop crying and you don’t know what else to do and you feel like the world’s biggest failure.

We don’t fake being sick. We fake being well.

We hold on so tightly to the fake veneer of happiness and newborn gassy smiles because we hope that no one will see that we’re struggling. Who’s sad when they have a new baby? Who’s anxious when they have a new baby? Why would anyone be angry when they have a new baby? (A lot of us, actually.)

Please, check on your new mom (and dad!) friends. Ask them how they’re doing. Really listen and offer a non-judgmental ear. They may be terrified of opening up about how they’re really feeling. Show them it’s okay, that what they’re experiencing is so incredibly common, and that, with help, they CAN get better 💕

If you need help and support:
🌸 Call or text the National Maternal Mental Health Hotline at 1-833-852-6262
🌸 Call or text the Postpartum Support International HelpLine at 800-944-4773
🌸 For a crisis situation, call or text the National Su***de & Crisis Lifeline at 988

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