Postpartum Progress Inc.

Unfortunately I did not discover PPI until I was well into my recovery, but finding this organization has been a life changer! It has allowed me to connect to others and network, as well as help in the fight to end stigmas and help other women in need. Without PPI, I wouldn't have even known how to start, but their amazing resources and tools have been a God send when it comes to spreading the word to other women that they are not alone.

This is an amazing organization that provides peer-to-peer support and stigma fighting against PPD and other postpartum mental health disorders. I have been involved with this group for 2-3 years now and the work they do is incredible. I started as a beneficiary of their support and have now transitioned to being a volunteer. I can't say enough awesome things about the group.

Amazing organization with amazing women fighting to end the stigma associated with postpartum depression. They have truly showed me that I'm not alone.

PPI has given me the strength and knowledge to not only fight through my own darkness, but to help others into the light!

They offer amazing support for moms around the world and now the the ambassador program they are able to connect better with moms. Having an ambassador in a city you live in helps with the peer to peer support that postpartum progress is so good at offering.

PPI literally saved my life. Without their education and tools, my best friend wouldn't have reached out to me in my darkest hour and told me I wasn't alone. I am forever endebted to Post Partum Progress!

PPI has helped me in so many ways. I not only have the tools I need to inform and help other mothers, I find strength in their stories as well. The peer to peer support system that PPI has helped me create has gotten me through some of the toughest times of my life.
I'm forever grateful of the guidance PPI has given me.

After the birth of my first child, I found myself dealing with Postpartum depression. I was fortunate, however, to have a friend that was a psychiatric resident and was able to refer me to someone. The downside of this was that I had to wait 3 weeks to be seen. I was lucky in that I had also found a great group of moms through a community support group. After a couple of months I was doing so much better.

But then I had my son two months later. I did not have the same support group and I had moved out of my old neighborhood. That is when I found Postpartum Progress and all the great resources available. I wanted to give back and help other women in need as well, so I volunteered for their Climb out of the Darkness event and raised $1,000! Through this event I found a new network of moms--People to talk to, people to grab coffee with, people that support me and I them. This was SO INSTRUMENTAL in helping me recover the 2nd time around. This cause is very near and dear to me and I will always be a supporter.

I am currently leading the Baltimore team for Climb out of the Darkness and am so humbled by the people that are rallying around me. Making change is not a challenge for the timid or the passive, and I am proud to be a fellow warrior mom!

Postpartum Progress saved my life when I was suffering from postpartum depression, anxiety and OCD. The online support group was a resource I used often. They helped me find a specialist as close to where I live as possible. They have been supportive in a way I couldn't have imagined someone could be that I have never met. I will forever be grateful!

I discovered Postpartum Progress when I was pregnant with our first child in 2012. I had always considered myself very informed on postpartum depression and other perinatal mood disorders, but it was a great tool to have at my disposal to reinforce what I already knew and help me keep an eye on my own mental health. I follow Postpartum Progress on Facebook as well and it wasn't until a few months after our second child was born (late 2014) that I saw a blog post about another mom who experienced postpartum rage. Until this point, I didn't know that was even possible. I had found myself angry and yelling a lot (at everyone and everything), but I thought it was just my personality and I thought I had inherited the yelling from my upbringing. After I read this mom's story, and countless others like it, I made the connection that hey, this isn't "just the way I am", there is a cause for it, and there is treatment. There was still hope. I immediately contacted my midwife and rehashed everything I discovered on Postpartum Progress. She gave me an unofficial diagnosis and provided me with referrals for my next step in treatment. I have since joined the Climb Out of the Darkness movement, leading our own local Climb event since there wasn't one anywhere near here. If it weren't for the information on Postpartumprogress.org and their blog and Facebook, I may have never realized that rage is a symptom and is treatable. Thank you, Katherine Stone and all involved with Postpartum Progress. I knew a lot when I discovered your site, but now I know even more. I am not alone and there is always hope. Thank you for all you do.

I am an antenatal depression survivor and peer support/advocate. Though I discovered PostpartumProgress after my own experiences were resolved, I absolutely LOVE the clear content and beautiful writings of the many guest writers. This site is a great place for me to refer moms that are struggling - I know they will get accurate information in 'Plain Mama English', and the reassurance that they are never alone in their struggle. This can actually mean the difference between life and death for some families, and I have no doubt that this site has saved the lives of countless many women. I follow the site daily and truly believe that it will change the way ALL maternal mental illnesses are treated.

I was taught for years that depression and postpartum depression weren't real and that a person needed to either just get over it or pray themselves out of it. At one point I was told that if someone struggled and prayer didn't work, then they weren't praying enough or weren't praying hard enough or, worse, were likely not real Christians. Imagine my horror when I found myself struggling and unable to pray my way out.

Postpartum progress helped me to see the truth. Something in my chemistry had gotten mixed up after giving birth. I wasn't alone. It was ok to ask for help. Getting help wasn't a sign of weakness. It didn't mean that my faith was a sham. It meant that I needed help and that was all. Postpartum Progress helped me get my life back to be the best mom that I could be by showing me I wasn't alone and that postpartum mood disorders are real.

Postpartum Progress was instrumental in helping me with my struggle. Before I came around their website I felt so alone and I just knew there was something "wrong" with me but had no idea what or how to "fix" myself. When I found their website and the anonymous forum with all the other women talking about EXACTLY what I was going through, it finally clicked for me. Through this website I have gotten in touch with so many beautiful women (inside and out) who have helped me realize that I'm not going through this struggle alone. Postpartum illnesses are not something anyone really tells you about, it's not talked about in all the baby books you read and when your friends talk about having babies. It's still taboo and Postpartum Progress has really helped me personally, to break down those "taboo" barriers and made me feel more comfortable talking about what has happened to me.

Postpartum Progress' Daily Hope emails were the light in my days after my daughter was born. I saved them, I would read them in the middle of the night on my phone as I sat in a dark room, exhausted and spent yet unable to sleep, and I would not feel so isolated. To this day, I am in awe of the personal touch that I felt from Postpartum Progress, despite living across the country from it's home base and not actually knowing anyone personally who works there. I am eternally grateful for the normalizing that I felt from PP - knowing that I am not the only person who has ever felt this way and that there is a whole world of moms out there who are fighting on their own behalfs and the behalf of others to change the way we view postpartum mood disorders.

Postpartum Progress is an invaluable resource for women (and their families) who are suffering or have suffered from a perinatal mood and anxiety disorder. Although I did not come across them until after my journey with postpartum OCD, postpartum anxiety and postpartum depression. It wasn't until I found Postpartum Progress that I was able to figure out that I also suffered from antenatal anxiety (anxiety occurring during my pregnancy) that went completely undiagnosed. I now utilize Postpartum Progress to help advocate for other women and their families, who are suffering or who have suffered, to educate others and to help rid the stigma attached to maternal mental disorders. Just a few interesting facts...
- 15-20% of all women will get a perinatal mood or anxiety disorder like postpartum depression or postpartum anxiety. That’s 1 in every 7 each year, nearly 1 million more than the number of women who will get breast cancer each year.

-100,000 people a year (men AND women) get multiple sclerosis, and that the National MS Society's annual Bike MS event raises $83 million each year to support them? In contrast, nearly 1 million women in the US get PPD each year -ten times as many as get MS and there is no national organization in our country dedicated to perinatal mood and anxiety disorders with a budget larger than $500,000.

Postpartum Progress saves lives and gives women who are suffering hope and those who have suffered (Warrior Moms) a platform to educate and advocate for others!!!!

Postpartum Progress has been instrumental in my recovery from postpartum depression and anxiety. I was able to find useful information on symptoms, how to ask for help, who to go to for a diagnosis, treatment options and most importantly, stories from thousands of women who have lived through it and survived. Without this information available online, I would still be suffering alone and terrified to talk to anyone about it. I would recommend this organization to everyone I know--both pregnant and new moms and their families, to help support them.

Postpartum Progress has been an amazing support system and resource in my journey through postpartum depression and anxiety. In a time when I was feeling helpless, alone, vulnerable and not sure where to turn, Postpartum Progress helped me connect with other moms, find help, and build an amazing support system for myself. I couldn't have made it out of the darkness without them!

Postpartum Progress gave me the information necessary to go to my doctors and get treatment for my PPD. Without Postpartum Progress I may not be here today. Their documents outlining PPD/PPA symptoms are the best descriptions I have seen anywhere! Postpartum Progress has given me the strength and courage to seek treatment and then help advocate for other moms in my community.

Postpartum Progress literally saved my life when I was pregnant with my second child and having intrusive thoughts of falling down the stairs. I had already spoken with a doctor, but it was the stories of hope from Postpartum Progress that reminded me I was worth saving and that I could overcome and be myself again. There are other orgs out there connect moms with doctors and some that train physicians to diagnosis and treat PPD - all important causes. But Postpartum Progress is by the moms, for the moms. Proud to be a Warrior Mom and grateful for the chance to volunteer for an organization that is run with intelligence and integrity.

Postpartum Progress has been critical in my personal battle against PPD. I have been able to find well written and well researched articles to many of the questions I have had in my recovery from postpartum depression and anxiety. I have been able to use their resources, hugs cards, and articles to help other women who have come to me to with their own recovery struggles. In helping to raise awareness of PPD, on behalf of Postpartum Progress, I have been able to be connected with a brilliant community of mothers who make me feel truly welcome. Without Postpartum Progress; I am certain my steps toward recovery of PPD/PPA would have been prolonged and more difficult.