How to save a life

“You’ve been a life saver.”

Those words will undoubtedly stick with me. As the president of the Postpartum Support Charleston board my phone number is listed on our website and often given out to people with questions about our organization. I’m happy to be that resource – especially when I get calls like the one I did Friday night.

A woman – let’s call her Lisa – called me because she needed help. She’d been hit by a wave of exhaustion, she’d just stopped nursing and she was having disturbing thoughts that she might do something harmful to herself or her baby – even if just because she was so tired.

She’d gone to the doctor and then to the ER and then to a local mental health facility, which didn’t sound like the best option for her situation. But it’s just one more example of how women with postpartum depression and anxiety are misunderstood and how medical professionals often handle these women so inadequately. But that’s another post for another day.

Lisa shared her story, telling me that she felt “like a monster” for the feelings she was having. I assured her she was most certainly not a monster and most certainly not the first woman to have felt this way. We spent about 20 minutes on the phone and I gave her some additional resources and suggested she continue to get some good rest (fortunately she had family in town who had been caring for the baby).

She thanked me for talking with her and then uttered that powerful sentence. That reaffirmed for me God’s calling to help women with PPD. If Lisa is the only woman I ever help, it would be worth it. If she can realize she’s not a monster, not a terrible mother and not a woman who needs to be locked away then my life has made an impact. I can know the months I suffered so deeply with my own bout of PPD could be used for something good.