Science

Documenting the Dark Side of Maternal Mental Health

Danielle Johnson FEATURE ARTICLES, MIIS Update, Science

by Danielle Steer

–USA –

Suicide is a common postpartum complication.

DarkSidePoster

Dark Side of the Full Moon will be available for online screening in January. For more information, visit DarkSideoftheFullMoon.com.

When I first heard that 1 in 7 women suffer from a maternal mental health complication like pregancy depression or postpartum depression and that 1 in 1000 will suffer from postpartum pyschosis, I was shocked. Why are women in my community not talking about this? Why was maternal mental health not included in my high school sex education or health classes? Why, at 28 and on the verge of starting my own family, am I only now learning that women I have watched on TV, like Andrea Yates and Jeannette Hawes, are not simply monsters and murderers but women in need? These women – sensationalized for killing themselves or their children – were suffering from a relatively common condition.

Fortunately, I am not alone in asking these questions.

Writer and Director Maureen Daniels and fellow postpartum depression survivor, Jennifer Silliman, are releasing online their documentary Dark Side of the Full Moon. Dark Side of the Full Moon delves into the unseen world of maternal mental health in the United States giving a face and voice to the countless women who have suffered in silence. It reveals a failure within the medical community to effectively screen, refer, and treat the 1.3 million mothers affected each year.

Maureen and I both studied public administration and social change at the Monterey Institute of International Studies. I have always looked up to her personally and professionally – she is the type of person whose laughter is beyond contagious and can be heard from a block away. Her husband aptly stated once that if you opened her head you would find lollipops and rainbows.

Yet in 2008, Maureen had her first suicidal thought.  An hour later she found out she was pregnant.  When she told her gynecologist she was sad and felt depressed, her doctor said, “you should be happy, you’re having a baby.”  So Maureen started asking for help elsewhere.  Over the next few months, as the suicidal thoughts became homicidal, Maureen sought out the help and diagnosis from 28 different health care professionals, none of whom were able to tell her what was wrong.  The 29th professional finally informed her that she was suffering from a severe perinatal mood disorder, a leading complication associated with pregnancy.

Maureen and Jennifer are pissed off and they want you to be too. “Nobody is asking any questions,” Maureen tells me. “Women are dying! Families are suffering! And there still isn’t a comprehensive policy to protect mothers.” Speaking with Maureen and Jennifer, I am struck by their resolve to change the conversation about maternal mental health.

Writer and Director, Maureen Daniels. Photo courtesy of Maureen Daniels.

Writer and Director Maureen Daniels. Photo courtesy of the filmmakers.

Dark Side of the Full Moon portrays Jennifer Silliman’s terrifying story. After six months of intrusive thoughts – mostly visions of knifes, sharp objects, and stabbing – Jennifer finally told her husband she needed help. Even though she has fully recovered, Jennifer is reminded – and is grateful – daily that she is now able to be in the same room as scissors or a steak knife. When I asked Jennifer why she wants to tell her story, it is simple.

“I was sitting in a support group a few years ago … and I talked about my intrusive thoughts, which is not something that people normally talk about. I noticed the woman next to me started crying and she said to me, ‘I have exactly what you have right now, and I didn’t even know that there was a name for it.’ From that moment on I knew that I have a really powerful tool that I can use to help other people.”

When Maureen first talked to Jennifer about the film, they knew there was a huge need to educate, inform, and create change around maternal mental health. Jennifer tells me, “Things like dropping your baby, sharp knives, or drownings are the three most common intrusive thoughts that mothers have and I know there are other moms out there that are having thoughts like that and they don’t understand that they are not psychotic. They are not Andrea Yates. They are not going to kill or harm their baby because they know what they are thinking isn’t right. They understand that part. That is the difference between psychosis and intrusive thoughts.”

She continues, “This is happening so much more than people think and in so many different ways that are devastating to families. Even for me personally, I will never have another baby. When I think about what I went through there is just no way. I still don’t trust that there is enough help out there to take care of me.”

In the film Maureen and Jennifer interview professionals, mothers, and survivors all over the country; and the consensus is the same – we need to do more.

“The vast majority of postpartum women with depression are not identified or treated even though they are at higher risk for psychiatric disorders,” lead author Dr. Katherine Wisner, director of Northwestern University’s Asher Centre for Research and Treatment of Depression in Chicago, told the Telegraph. “A lot of women do not understand what is happening to them. They think they’re just stressed or they believe it is how having a baby is supposed to feel.”

Postpartum depression survivor, Jennifer Silliman, shares her story in Dark Side of the Full Moon. Photo Courtesy of Maureen Daniels.

Postpartum depression survivor, Jennifer Silliman, shares her story in Dark Side of the Full Moon. Photo Courtesy of the filmmakers.

When I asked two pediatrician friends if they screen their patients they both said, “Of course. We ask mom how she is doing every time she brings in her child for their check ups.  But I have no idea what to do except call Child Protective Services if she says she’s suicidal or that she needs help.”

Maureen and Jennifer found this trend among the many women they spoke with for the film and even experienced it themselves. Maureen says, “I was so thankful that my doctors caught my gestational diabetes. But 29 doctors to diagnose my mental health complication? The specialist was down the street. Down the street! And the OB didn’t know.”

Luckily, there is one state that some might call a positive deviant.  Massachusetts has one of the most comprehensive strategies for addressing maternal mental health complications.  They have successfully implemented a statewide screening system as well as a network of healthcare professionals that are trained to address and treat maternal mental health complications at every level of care for mothers. But one state is not enough.

While the film focuses on mothers, Jennifer and Maureen both agree that we are also overlooking the impact on children. When mom is sad and distant  – or dead – children suffer. In my most recent Skype chat with Maureen, she is living this reality. “I am sitting in a therapist office on Christmas Eve, my 6-year-old son is in a private session on his birthday because he can’t speak in school and has a rare form of social anxiety called selective mutism. Is my health when he was a baby connected to his current anxiety? I think so.”

Jennifer tells me, “As a mom, you want to believe that you’re not the reason why your child’s life will be forever changed. But we can’t really say that.” Maureen adds, “many women we spoke to said their kids have some anxiety issues. Mom’s health is huge for kids. If mom isn’t well the family isn’t well.”

Let’s change the conversation.  Let’s help our mothers, our sisters, our daughters, and our future generations. Let’s stand with mothers.  We have an opportunity to create real social change for our society and that starts by educating the public. Mothers, fathers, doctors, therapists, and legislators need to be informed about the complications associated with pregnancy and how we can best support mothers in need. Dark Side of the Full Moon gives a profound and startling inside look at maternal mental health. I only hope it will be a catalyst for the change mothers everywhere deserve.

Dark Side of the Full Moon filmmakers invite you to watch and join a global campaign to stand with mothers. Find out more by going to the Dark Side of the Full Moon website. -Ed.

danielle steerAbout the author: Hailing from Anchorage, Alaska, Danielle Steer graduated from the Monterey Institute of International Studies with a Master of Public Administration. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon. After graduating from MIIS, Danielle worked in Peru developing financial strategies for a group of indigenous women in the Sacred Valley. She now serves as the Enrollment Manager for the International Environmental Policy, International Policy, and Public Administration programs at MIIS.

The Great Invisible Explores Human Cost of Deepwater Horizon Disaster

Danielle Johnson Arts & Culture, MIIS Update, Science

by Danielle Steer
–USA–

thegreatinvisibleposterI recently read that your 20s are a defining decade in regards to a person’s development. As I near the end of my 20s and reflect, one summer stands out among the rest.

In April of 2010, the world held its breath as millions of gallons of oil leaked into the Gulf of Mexico after the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. Eleven of the rig’s 126 crewmembers died while numerous more were injured. Unabated for nearly three months, the spill shut down the local fishing industry, polluting the valuable and fragile Gulf Coast ecosystem and endangering wildlife, marine animals, and the livelihoods of thousands of coastal residents.

Based in Mobile, Alabama, I worked as a Wildlife Rehabilitation Technician with International Bird Rescue. Throughout the summer, I was engrossed with the environmental tragedy and immediate impacts of the spill on the local wildlife. I washed pelicans and seagulls, I cared for common loons and northern gannets and I learned about emergency response, herd health, and the high value of water for coastal residents.

At the same time, Margaret Brown, a Peabody Award winning documentarian and Alabama native, was receiving pictures of oil booms and oil slick water from her father, a retired shrimper. “It was so depressing,” she remembers, “I felt so powerless … I felt like I just had to do something.” That something is a powerful documentary entitled The Great Invisible, a film that explores the fallout of the disaster on the people in the Gulf Coast.

When I sat down with Brown to talk about the movie, we realized there were a lot of parallels in our vastly different experiences. While I became acquainted with the wildlife of the Gulf Coast and the recovery of the environment, Brown had a unique opportunity to get to know the people of the coast, the stories of the rig workers, and the impact on local communities.

Latham Smith in THE GREAT INVISIBLE. Image courtesy of RADiUS-TWC.

Latham Smith in THE GREAT INVISIBLE. Image courtesy of RADiUS-TWC.

“Water is such a part of the way of life down there,” she tells me. “A lot of people’s relaxing time is spent on the water … certainly my family. It’s inextricable from life on the coast … The despair is that the quality of life would be gone. If the water is gone then it’s gone. If the seafood is gone it’s a dead coast. I think the environmental impacts are ongoing. It’s really hard to say right now what’s the fallout … it’s still happening.” In 2013, over 4.6 million pounds of oily material was collected on the Gulf Coast shoreline and over 106,465 tons has been collected since 2010.

The hotels and restaurants in Mobile were happy to have hundreds of relief workers as patrons in their businesses with BP picking up the tab. But I often heard locals remark, “What happens when y’all leave? Nobody is going to want to go to the beach – tourists or locals. What will we do?”

Brown honed in on this concern in the movie with stories from shrimp workers, oyster shuckers, and tug boat owners, all concerned about what would happen in the months following the spill and cleanup. “Those people need jobs,” she explains, “and that’s why the oil industry is so complicated in the south.”

Moody’s Analytics Economist Chris Lafakis estimates there are nearly 12,500 people working in off-shore oil drilling in the US. BP reports that they directly employ more than 2,300 people in the Gulf of Mexico right now. Brown points out, “In the south, at least before this, there was this blind trust in the industry because it created so many jobs that were good jobs that could provide for families. And then this happened. And there’s no longer that blind trust.”

"Hardluck City" in THE GREAT INVISIBLE. Image courtesy of RADiUS-TWC.

“Hardluck City” in THE GREAT INVISIBLE. Image courtesy of RADiUS-TWC.

While working in the Gulf, we both became hyper sensitive about oil consumption. When the majority of your conversations and experiences are centered around oil, you start to realize to what extent we really are dependent upon oil. As Latham Smith, a Tugboat Captain, states in the movie, “[People] want a car they can drive any damn time they want to. They want a light bulb they can turn on any time they want to. They want air conditioning they can turn on when it’s hot, not just when the wind blows.”

But oil is not just necessary for the cars in our communities. So much of our daily life is associated with oil in some capacity. In the US, food typically travels between 1,500 and 2,500 miles – by plane or truck – between farm and plate. The US Energy Information Administration estimates that in 2010, 191 barrels of crude oil byproducts were used in the production of plastics alone. Plastic bags are made from oil – it takes about 430,000 gallons of oil to produce 100 million plastic bags, and the U.S. goes through 380 billion of them a year.

Brown hopes that her film will bring our excessive use of oil to the forefront of our consciousness. She tells me, “I hope that [people] will feel galvanized to start a conversation about all the things we don’t understand about oil. There is this factory under the Gulf of Mexico that we don’t even think about how we are connected. Making the movie, for me, it was this wake-up call to all the things we can do working together to make a difference … you can’t do it on your own.”

That same summer I spent in Alabama, I met my husband. His father is a geologist and previously worked at BP for 27 years. Before I went down to the Gulf, I felt as though I was somehow betraying my value system by falling in love with an “oil family.”

But the reality is that my father-in-law, the rig workers, and the oil company employees are not bad people. “The villain is us,” Margaret tells me. “We are the ones asking for [oil], not those guys. It’s very easy to point the finger at them. They’re the suppliers and we’re the ones using the drug.” I now find myself defending the industry and my family as a direct result of my experience washing oil and dispersant off of birds that summer.

There is a lot that we as consumers can do, like not forgetting our reusable bags when we go shopping and refilling a reusable water bottle instead of purchasing single use plastic. As Brown points out, “There are all these people acting at great risk to give us our comfort. If you understand it more it leads to making changes.”

The Great Invisible opens October 29 in Los Angeles and New York and won Best Documentary at 2014’s South by Southwest. -Ed.

danielle steerAbout the author: Hailing from Anchorage, Alaska, Danielle Steer graduated from the Monterey Institute of International Studies with a Master of Public Administration. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon. After graduating from MIIS, Danielle worked in Peru developing financial strategies for a group of indigenous women in the Sacred Valley. She now serves as the Enrollment Manager for the International Environmental Policy, International Policy, and Public Administration programs at MIIS.