Postpartum Depression Blogs Help Moms

Tom Cruise's public and ignorant comments about Brooke Shields' postpartum depression in May 2005 get lots of credit for bringing needed attention to a devastating condition that has been glossed over in pregnancy books.

But the truth is, women bloggers who share their postpartum experiences and resources with other women who find themselves in a scary, dangerous place following childbirth are doing that every day.

One of the first bloggers to give voice to the pain and despair of postpartum depression is Katherine Stone, who has been writing Postpartum Progress since 2004. Her son was born in September 2001, and after a difficult delivery they went home on Sept. 11, 2001. After weeks of crying and believing the hysteria, weight loss, and insomnia she was experiencing were the normal "sadness" she had read about in baby books, intrusive thoughts about hurting her baby entered her mind.

When she turned to the Internet for help, there was information, but it was mostly clinical. "There was no humanity to what was out there," she recalls. "If I had something I wanted it would be another woman saying, 'here's the deal and here's what other people aren't going to tell you.' " She found some of that in a Yahoo! Group of women who had suffered PPD. She took the first step toward the psychiatric help she needed to heal when she called a counselor with her company's employee assistance program.

After Stone left her marketing director post at Coca-Cola in Atlanta, Newsweek published an essay she wrote on her experience with postpartum obsessive-compulsive disorder in July 2004. She got lots of response from women, which led to start the blog soon after. She already had a marketing blog, and her marketing expertise helped her figure out how to communicate with women about PPD.

Postpartum Progress is full of the latest research on PPD, distilled with clear writing and understanding, excellent resources and links, and shared stories. Guest bloggers, including Aliza Sherman of Babyfruit, Theresa Borchard of Beliefnet, and MommaSteph of Mom Squawk, share their postpartum experiences on the blog.

Though she works in tandem with organizations like Postpartum Support International, Stone has decided to keep her blog independent so she does not filter what she says or passes on to other women. "That's the thing I love about blogs the most," Stone says. "There's nothing politically or corporation-ally requiring me to follow one line or another. I am able to say what's in the best interest of women no matter what anybody else thinks."

At the BlogHer conference earlier this summer, I was struck by the number of women who said they started blogging to help get through their postpartum depression. One of the most recent to join these welcome voices is Kristen Park, a mother of four who experienced PPD after the birth of her third child. Park recently sparked an interesting discussion thread about taking anti-depressants during pregnancy on her PPD Survivor blog, which she launched in May.

Together, women like Stone and Park are creating community where there was none before, letting women who are suffering from something so terrible and isolating know that they are far from alone, and there is help out there for them.

Says Stone: "I am looking forward to the day when a woman (suffering from PPD) knows exactly what's happening to her, where to go for help, and has the shortest recovery possible."

Related blogs:

Babyfruit
MomSquawk 
Beyond Blue
Dooce
PPD Survivor