Life with a Baby helps decrease depression in new mothers
Despite being a successful actress and married to Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, Gwyneth Paltrow suffered from post-partum depression after her second child was born.
“I felt like a zombie. I couldn’t access my heart. I couldn’t access my emotions. I couldn’t connect,” Paltrow, now 38, says in the February issue of Good Housekeeping. “It was terrible, it was the exact opposite of what had happened when Apple was born. With her, I was on cloud nine. I couldn’t believe it wasn’t the same. I just thought it meant I was a terrible mother and a terrible person.”
When a celebrity reveals she was suffering from post-partum depression, it helps new mothers feel like they are not alone.
In York Region, Life With A Baby does just that.
Life with a Baby is a project of Healthy Start, Healthy Future, a not-for-profit organization in York Region whose goal is to provide ongoing practical and emotional peer-based support for new and expecting parents, and parents of children up to the age of six.
LWAB programs showed a marked decrease in scores on the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, which is a screening tool for postnatal depression and anxiety. One hundred percent of participants were above the cut-off score of 9 for possible depression at pre-test, with 75% moving below this cut-off score at post-test.
LWAB offers informational seminars and programs, open forums, and fun social events. The programs have three focuses: supporting and educating parents, building strong relationships for couples, and supporting mothers.
In addition to over 35 monthly face to face social events, the LWAB website offers continuous mom to mom support. The organization’s social events offer an opportunity for new and stay at home moms at the same stage of life to connect with each other. These include social gatherings, weekly walk groups, moms-only events, and various support groups.
LWAB is also now in Ottawa and Windsor and is planning to expand to other areas in the GTA.
Parents of children aged 0-6 can sign up by registering on www.lifewithababy.com for free.
