For women who are suffering from postpartum depression and need help now, there is a great hotline that I found at PPD Hope (www.ppdhope.com). The number is: (877) PPD-HOPE, or (877) 773-4673. I called it myself this evening just to check it out and make sure that a live person answers. Sure enough, a woman answered the line and confirmed that a live person answers 24 hours every day. You have options to receive free literature on PPD and/or get in touch with their peer support program.

My friend and fellow postpartum depression (PPD) health advocate Katherine Stone has started a bookstore challenge in response to the dearth of books on PPD in many bookstores. It's not that there aren't plenty of wonderful books and other resources on postpartum depression, it's that many bookstores don't feel that it's an important enough topic to devote a space on a shelf too.
Sad but true.

This mom is in the throes of postpartum depression and could use a big hug from our community. Let's all visit her blog, read her story and leave her a comment to show support.

http://hopefeelsgood.blogspot.com/2008/0...

Postpartum Support International offers Spanish-language support on its toll-free warmline, at 1-800-944-4PPD (press 1 for Spanish). This is such a helpful resource!

Andrea Zas Jimenez is the support coordinator for the Spanish Warmline, and Stephanie Morales will be coordinating PSI's national resource list for Spanish-speaking support.

Please help spread the word about this resource for Spanish-speaking new moms who may need PPD information and help.

(In the coming months, EmpowHer will also be in Spanish, which we're so excited about!!)

I just read the EmpowHer news story about Gwyneth Paltrow's recent interview where she says that her postpartum depression was staved off when she started eating healthy, doing acupuncture, and getting in touch with her spirituality.

I send many kudos Gwyneth's way for recognizing that she had PPD and was able to find techniques that helped.

At the same time, I want to offer a word of caution that sometimes PPD is so severe that no amount of vegies, prayers or needles will make an impact.

After taking nearly three years off from her juggernaut Hollywood career to raise her two gorgeous children, Gwenyth Paltrow is back in the limelight, starring in one of the summer's biggest blockbuster films, "Iron Man."
The celebrity mom talks about juggling a film career with two young kids.

The Academy-Award winning actress stars alongside Robert Downey Jr. as a red-headed Girl Friday, Pepper Potts, in a big screen remake of the Marvel comic book classic.

Read full story

I continue to be amazed at the backlash that has generated in response to the much-needed, ground-breaking Mother's Act that is currently before the US Senate. Apparently just a handful of women are behind this backlash, however they're raising quite a stink. And they appear not to have actually read the bill. Rather, they obviously have their own agenda regarding SSRI's and thus have twisted the actual intent of the bill to fuel their agenda.

Ever since I started blogging about my own postpartum depression experience and also about the amazing resources that are out there for women and their families who are suffering, I often hear from new moms who are looking for help but don't have health insurance. This is such a huge issue, but after doing a little digging, I've been able to find some free resources that are out there.

There's an extremely comprehensive article on PPD on the Scientific American web site, including data from a number of current PPD-related studies from around the world. The article, written by Katja Gaschler, includes an in-depth look at the impact of PPD on the nascent bond between a mother and her baby. (http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=mise...) Here's an excerpt: ---------------------

I know I've written about this before in a previous post ... about how difficult it was when I decided not to breastfeed my fourth baby (and I don't mean the decision itself was difficult -- it was that the health care providers around me were unbelievably difficult). Well, I'm just glad that I'm not giving birth today because of the self-righteous stance that a slew of hospitals and providers around the country are taking.