Maternal Mental Health

In honor of Maternal Mental Health Week, I thought I’d write down some of my musings (rants?) on the subject. I’m an RN in the postpartum unit of a major local hospital, so interact with moms of all types in that fast and furious first 1-3 days (and sometimes longer) from birth. I wrote my Master’s thesis on postpartum depression and the efficacy/importance of prenatal identification for at-risk mamas. I myself am a mom (would be a pretty weird blog name if not, huh?) that has gone through her own pits and valleys with mental health issues, and also spent a few years volunteering on a really excellent phone line for people in crisis related to sexual trauma. What I’m trying to say is that…I feel like I’m qualified to say my little piece on moms and mental health here in Internetland.

I like to qualify myself a little because I run into so, SO much media and culture that has this funny little undercurrent that seems to whisper: “You are not enough”. As a woman, as a new mother, as an experienced one, a young one, an old one…

I don’t like it.

That little undercurrent feels like it’s there to play on the vulnerable mama’s fears. We are all a little unsure of ourselves in the beginning (and even as our littles grow older) and those kind of articles and list-posts I see on Pinterest especially can really ratchet up those feelings. I came upon this ad smack-dab in the middle of an article on 11 month old milestones the other day and was just a little infuriated.

Do we not have enough to deal with while trying to holistically prepare a precious nest for our littles without some weird internet company trying to capitalize on our small, legitimate insecurities? Even Mayo Clinic (which was and is still a fairly go-to resource for this MomScout) had a little side ad advertising their Mayo Clinic Diet and how much weight I wanted to lose – leave me and my body – pregnant or otherwise – alone, Mayo Clinic advertising bot ppl!

While I was pregnant with Fiona and doing my due diligence by Googling and talking to friends/family/co-workers, reading the pregnancy/delivery/parenting books…I felt like I was doing a good job. But many of those resources just contradicted each other! 

I was left a little nonplussed from the whole information-gathering aspect of preparing to become a mother. There WERE some highlights, such as the book The First Fourty Days: The Essential Art of Nourishing the New Mother [EDIT: OMG buy this for any foodie-type pregnant lady - it is gorgeous and makes the best present] which really emphasized focusing on mom and baby in that critical first month (vs. hosting people,  or getting all the right photo ops, etc.) I also could not get enough of the birth stories and practical advice from the venerable Ina May Gaskin’s Guide to Childbirth. There were a few others, and my midwives were all very open to talking about “the plan” for a very low dose antidepressant for afterwards, but here’s the thing:

I was finding other stuff in my research.

A truly fantastic way to address non-emergent maternal mental health issues is for that beautiful new mama to get together with other moms! The friendliness, the understanding, the companionship, the community – studies show that moms that participate in some kind of activity, formal or otherwise, that gets them together with other moms/parents really, really helps with decreasing risk of mental health issues. I truly loved my new moms group (for free!) at Blooma Yoga here in St. Paul – and it was just an empty room filled with new moms and their little ones, going around a circle and sharing their ups and downs in a safe, calm environment. So empowering and lovely.

Another way is to practice mindfulness, and become calm from within about the pregnancy, the preparation, the major life upheaval it will be regardless of whether it’s first baby or fifth 😉 There are a ton of mindfulness strategies to help harness that qi and I am currently working on a blog post talking about some of my personal faves.

Another overly simplistic-sounding way to address maternal mental health issues is to prevent them – and that means talking about it with your healthcare professional or at least making a plan before you give birth. If you have had issues before, assume that the sea-change that is the hormonal shift upon delivering, or the staggering happiness and fatigue that comes with being anyone’s sole caregiver – nonetheless a tiny, very-demanding human that you care very, VERY much about – will very most likely make these issues…come up.

Some healthcare profs don’t know what to do with a positive prenatal screen for depression risk, and I don’t fault them for it as the training can be minimal, but if you have an inkling you might be at-risk and they don’t bring it up or talk about practical ways to address this very real and normal hazard of childbearing…move on!

Some things you can do if you feel you are at risk, pre OR postnatally:

• Call the Postpartum Support International Helpline in your prenatal period!
• Talk to a trusted sister, friend, therapist, partner, or integrative health specialist!
• If you are a woman of color that feels like you might have issues with postpartum depression – and there is more of a risk for this demographic –  look here!

Anyways. I am glad there is an emphasis on maternal health this week. I unfortunately cannot run in the upcoming Daisy Dash to benefit Minnesota’s Pregnancy and Postpartum Support organization because of a prior family obligation, but will be there in spirit and have donated. Let’s keep the conversation focused on the well-being of mamas and the well-being of their children and families will only follow. Cheers to all you mamas out there, and for the healthcare professionals doing their best to support them holistically!

xoxo, MomScout

Smooth Like Butter: Apple Butter

When Little One started getting older, around 4-5 months, we started thinking about foods. At least I did – the Significant Other was affably all ears but was also perfectly fine with me steering the ship. Probably because it’s de rigeur, I first connected with “Baby Led Weaning” (letting baby choose from an array of solids with no hands-on help from ‘rents) and went from there.

Eventually we settled into a rhythm of “BLW” plus some purees, some help with feeding, but mostly letting Baby Fifi guide us with how she wanted to start eating solids. It’s an exhilarating thing (at least for this over-eager home chef) to help someone try, say, lox for the first time (loved) or avocado (not so much).

My biggest caveat throughout her introductory phase into foods (and through now – she was 11 months yesterday!) is that she eat whole, unprocessed foods and as much from scratch as possible. Preservatives, chemicals, unnatural nutrients from “food-like substances” that aren’t optimal for our cells to simply metabolize…no thank you. I’ve always been the primary cook in our household and it’s how I’ve chosen to nourish SO and myself as well.

Of course we don’t always eat so perfectly…

…but when it’s something more sweet or fatty or carb-laden (oh hello, fresh-baked rosemary bread with butter, guhhh) it’s as a delightful indulgence  and not the norm (nor something to feel guilty about for days on end). Really, I’ve always just tried to find us a balance of whole, healthful, super-appetizing foods with not so much cost and preparations that fit into our decently busy lifestyles. TBH kind of a tall order but one that I feel passionate about, so it has never felt like work to pursue.

In any case, I started to think – a lot – about what I could prep for Fiona that was easy-ish and nutritious for our precious little bean. There was a lot of trial and error (and still very much is) and I just kept reiterating the fact that babies are programmed to not like new flavors/textures right away and that they have to taste something approximately 7.2 billion times before they even think about liking it. Thus far we’ve been lucky that she’s accepted most things in that she’s a good eater and hopefully developing a little palate that appreciates the kind of food we like to eat also.

Greatest hits right now at 11 months: frozen blueberries that have thawed (nice and squishy and relatively easy for little fingers to pick-up), whole-fat Greek yogurt with some kind of fruit or berry and flax meal, million-grain toast with hummus (TBH toast with anything!), and what this whole post is about: apple butter.

Now I really know nothing about making apple butter. I thought, when I decided to make it, that I was making apple sauce. I think ultimately we ended up with a hybrid for this first batch. As with many first time recipes that I do, I read several different recipes on the Internetz to get a general feel of the preparation and then decided to partially wing it. Three 3-pounds bags of apples later, I had a crockpot of delicious goodness for little girl! Here’s what I did:

• Bought 9 lbs of Fuji apples (for like $10 total…thanks Aldi!)
• Soaked and rinsed with water-white vinegar and then cored the apples
• Cut ’em up and threw ’em in the trusty ol’ Crockpot with a pinch of cinnamon-sugar
• Put it on low (not warm, not high, right in between) overnight
• Woke up and picked about half the peels out (for future batches I’ve saved these peels and froze in hopes of using to make dog treats – the first time I just put  them in the compost bucket along with the cores etc.)
• Immersion blended and ended up with very roughly about 4 cups of smooth, surprisingly dark sauce
• Put into my trusty, fabulous glass baby-food jars
• Fed to Fiona at room temp as we beamed at each other in mutual apple sauce-butter appreciation 🙂

I think if I let the apple sauce-butter go a little longer it would become true apple butter in that glossy, dark, rich way that Mother Google tells me it should. I’m okay with the way it turned out for us just because Fiona seems to really like it...and I feel great about making her food myself and skipping the processed junk.

I also really liked leaving at least some of the peels because that’s where a lot of the fibrous nutritional value in apples lies. It did have slightly, uh…laxative benefits for her but nothing bad as far as diaper blowouts, more like just a really healthy BM <–forgive the poop talk – I am an RN after all and aren’t we all at least vaguely interested in GI function (and especially after having little ones?) 😉

Anyone else make apple sauce for their littles? I tried half Fuji and half green apple too and it was tasty and tart, plus a batch of all Red Delish that got highest points from the hubs as the best “apple pie” taste. Thoughts on different apple varietals for sauce? Anyone use reusable pouches instead of baby-food jars? Let me know in the comments!

-Alex, head MomScout

(Originally posted April 30, 2018)