With one phone call you can help stop infanticide, child abuse and suicide: Support the MOTHERS ACT today

Please stop what you're doing and pick up your keyboard and your phone today to help change the course of maternal history for thousands of women and children.

I'm excited to announce the first official blogging initiative of BlogHers Act ! As part of our commitment to make a difference on the issue of maternal Health in 2007-2008 we are urging you to join us and the incredible team at Postpartum Support International as we pick up our keyboards and our telephones to help support legislation aimed at saving women who suffer from postpartum depression in the Blog Day for the Mothers Act -- TODAY.

You may wonder why you should care -- especially, to be blunt, if you don't have children yourself and/or don't plan to? Because this disease is a silent killer that touches hundreds of thousands of women and their vulnerable children. Nobody tells the story better than Katherine Stone (no relation):

"With all we know and as smart as we are, only 15% of 800,000 women will get diagnosed and treated.  That is so wrong on so many levels.  Women are not being diagnosed because they're not being educated and they're not being screened.  Untreated, the consequences of maternal mood disorders range from chronic, disabling depression to death.  The impact of untreated maternal depression on infants/children ranges from behavioral and learning disabilities to depression and, in the worst case scenarios, death from infanticide." (More from Katherine here here: Help Mothers Everywhere: Join Blog Day for the MOTHERS Act on October 24th)

What is the MOTHERS Act?  The Moms Opportunity to Access Help, Education, Research and Support for Postpartum Depression Act, or MOTHERS Act (S. 3529), will ensure that new mothers and their families are educated about postpartum depression, screened for symptoms and provided with essential services.  In addition, it will increase research into the causes, diagnoses and treatments for postpartum depression.  The bill is sponsored by Senators Menendez and Durbin. Specifically, the MOTHERS Act will help new moms by:

• Providing important education and screening on postpartum depression (PPD) that can lead to early identification and treatment.  The legislation includes two grants to help healthcare providers educate, identify and treat PPD.
• Expanding important research to improve and discover new treatments, diagnostic tools and educational materials for providers.  Since the exact cause of PPD isn't known, research continues to be the key to unlocking the mystery of this condition.

Here's what we -- BlogHer, Postpartum Support International and Postpartum Progress are joining you to do TODAY: 

• CALL YOUR SENATOR: Visit the Postpartum Support International website and click the Welcome Bloggers button at the top to get all the information you need about the bill, how your readers can call their Senators, what to say, etc.
• IF YOU'RE A BLOGGER: Publish your post on postpartum depression and the MOTHERS Act on Wednesday, October 24th and don't forget to tag your post with: Blog Day for the MOTHERS Act, BlogHers Act, BlogHer, Postpartum Progress, Postpartum Support International, postpartum depression
• Once you've blogged, be sure to go back to BlogHer and leave your URL so others can link to you.

Please blog it and encourage your readers to help save women's lives. Please pick up the phone and call your senator. Together, we can make a huge difference for a very desperate group of women and their families.

And if we don't do it, nobody will.

Comments

[JCK]

Hi Lisa,

I did a blog on this, too. My link is: http://motherscribe.blogspot.com/2007/10/bloghersact-for-mothers.html

You did a very meaningful post!

JCK

[Katherine Stone]

Thank you so much for writing about Blog Day for the MOTHERS Act. I hope you will continue to encourage your readers to call their Senators throughout the rest of the week, as I hear that the phone lines were pretty busy today. Every single call is SO important. Thanks again for your support of women with postpartum depression!

[Lisa Stone]

Great post, JCK, thank you for linking it. As I just commented on your blog, I didn't experience PPD but my marriage ended after my son was born, and I learned what it was like to battle enormous emotional upheaval and not talk about it while also trying to be the whole world to my little boy.

That was agonizing, lonely and frightening, albeit in a very different way. I think that's why I care so much about this issue.

Katherine, you're right - it was impossible to get through in D.C. so I called their San Francisco offices. Thanks for all you're doing on this important issue.

[Belinda]

I'm sorry I missed the boat on this. I just wanted to say how proud I am of you, and of BlogHer, and how honored I am to be a part, however small, of this group of people. Makes my heart happy.

[MGH Center for Womens Mentalh Health]

Thanks for your support of the MOTHERS Act. Too often postpartum depression is a problem that goes unnoticed, and most women with PPD never receive any type of treatment. PPD is a treatable illness, and it is essential that we continue to educate ourselves and others about this important issue.

For more information on PPD, visit us at The MGH Center for Women's Mental Health.

[mommyof2]

PPD is NOT a mental illness, it is a natural occurrence of motherhood.

I would never support this intrusive bill. Screening leads inevitably to diagnosis and drugs that harm both mom and baby for Big Pharma profit. And when you are labelled mentally unstable, it's a short trip to the psych ward and losing all your rights as a human being.