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Managing Abortion and Postpartum Depression as a Psychiatric Nurse: Nina's Story, Part 1
What You Didn't Expect in Fertility, Pregnancy & Birth: Real Stories & Expert Insights
English - August 19, 2022 19:00 - 21 minutes - 14.7 MB - ★★★★★ - 15 ratingsParenting Kids & Family Education pregnancy birth post partum depression placenta motherhood birth stories Homepage Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Today’s show features a guest that can give us some perspective on the current climate around two important topics: abortion and postpartum depression. She’s a psychiatric nurse practitioner, who experienced an abortion in the 1970s and peripartum and postpartum depression in the 1990s. She’s written about her experience. In a piece, titled “No Stranger”. Here are some excerpts from her writing. First, she writes:
“How do you know?” the patient might ask. I lean forward a bit in my
office chair, a magic mix of science and empathy, or so I would like to
think. The woman sitting across from me may be dabbing at her eyes
with her fingers. If her nails are chewed to bloody shreds, I will fold my
own more tightly in my lap.
“I’ve been a nurse practitioner for a long time,” I will say. “More
women than you think go through this. It’s hormonal…”
And a little later in the piece she writes:
Early on I figured that postpartum depression was
a risk for me, but expected I could balance my emotional happiness and
stability against my physiological tendency towards clinical depression,
if I was ever so lucky as to get pregnant. And besides, I was a
professional. With training and resources.
So here’s the thing with training and resources: Depression robs
you of the clarity to use any of those skills or supports.
Let's get to her story
For extended show notes, see: https://warstoriesfromthewomb.com/