Increasing Awareness of Postpartum Depression

2/9/15 UPDATE: The event has been postponed due to the latest snowfall. It will NOT be held on 2/11. 

The MA Legislature's Special Commission on Postpartum Depression has organized an awareness day at the State House open to the public, entitled Bringing Postpartum Depression Into the Light: Decreasing Stigma, Supporting Families, and Implementing Policy Change in Massachusetts on TBA from noon to 3pm in the Great Hall at the Massachusetts State House.

There are some great speakers lined up including Dr. Gold, a pediatrician; Jamie Zahlaway Belsito, a postpartum depression survivor; Dr. Byatt, the Medical Director of MCPAP for Moms; Liz Friedman of MotherWoman; and Divya Kumar, a driving force behind a pilot project that put a postpartum doula in a community health center to provide accessible care, screening for perinatal emotional complications, and connection to clinicians for mothers there for their own or their children's medical appointments. 

I'm hopeful that it will be an energizing afternoon where legislators can better understand the resources available - and not available - across the state, where mothers and families can meet with their representatives and providers there, and where more connections among us all can be made. 

I'll be there most of the afternoon at the PSI of MA table. Please come by and say hello!