{"id":617,"date":"2022-08-23T02:01:50","date_gmt":"2022-08-23T02:01:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/swpro.org\/amccraw\/?page_id=617"},"modified":"2022-12-07T16:55:39","modified_gmt":"2022-12-07T16:55:39","slug":"special-project","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/swpro.org\/amccraw\/special-project\/","title":{"rendered":"Special Project"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Mommy Caf\u00e9<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Introduction<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Upon becoming an MSW intern with Mpowered, a maternal mental health for-profit start-up, it was established early on that services needed to be expanded and developed. Thus was created: The Mommy Caf\u00e9. The Mommy Caf\u00e9 is a landing page on the Mpowered website that would offer an array of virtual services for women on their motherhood journey. With the help of my field instructor, Catie Whiting (Mpowered CEO and Perinatal Mental Health Specialist), I developed a free online course \u201cThe Busy Mom\u2019s Guide to the Anxious Brain\u201d and launched our Podcast \u201cThe Motherhood Dilemma\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Busy Mom’s Guide to the Anxious Brain<\/strong>\u00a0is a 3-part free online mini-course. Each lesson is about 20 minutes in length, and is designed to act as a self-paced therapy platform at home. This course uses a combination of evidence-based interventions and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to bring busy moms tools and activities that can transform their mental health. This course has been published on the Mpowered website and participants can sign up and begin at their convenience. Once participants have signed up, one lesson is released once a week from the sign-up date. It takes 3 weeks to complete this course.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Motherhood Dilemma Podcast<\/strong>\u00a0was created as a\u00a0result of one of our many brainstorming sessions. As women at different points in our motherhood journey, we both have seen a huge lack in care and support for mother’s mental health. This is the dilemma of motherhood: Our culture looks at motherhood with a constant expectation of independence, perfectionism, and a \u201cdo it all\u201d mentality. However, women and mothers cannot do it all, we cannot do it perfectly, and we cannot do it alone. This podcast hosted by mental health providers and perinatal mental health specialists attempts to find educated answers to begin to support these women navigating the million dilemma\u2019s of motherhood.\u00a0The Motherhood Dilemma is a podcast that is going to find answers, information, and stories to help bridge this gap of endless expectations with limited resources on how to \u00a0get there.\u00a0<\/span>This Podcast is on-going and I will continue to produce new episodes with my field instructor every other Tuesday.<\/span><\/p>\n

Social Issue<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The social issue being addressed by this online course and podcast is the lack of care and interventions for mothers within the US. The courses found within the Mommy Cafe will not only address false beliefs of mental health for mothers, but educate these women on the need to prioritize their mental health first and how they can achieve this. As addressed in our Podcast, The Motherhood Dilemma, women experience a significant amount of pressure to take care of everyone around them, but often fail to consider themselves in this equation. Mpowered was first started because it’s founder, Catie Whitting, saw an incredible need for advocation and education on the importance of mental health for women on their motherhood journey, after becoming a mother herself.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Prevalence of Maternal Mental Illnesses<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The Anxiety and Depression Association of America reports that \u201cGAD affects 6.8 million adults or 3.1% of the U.S. population, yet only 43.2% are receiving treatment” (2022). Taking this into account, this means 56.8% individuals who are diagnosed with General Anxiety Disorder are not receiving treatment. We also have to take into account that this number only represents those who have been diagnosed, and we know that there is likely a high percentage of individuals that hasn’t been clinically diagnosed with Anxiety. Furthermore, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reports that “an estimated 19.2% of U.S adults has an anxiety disorder in the past year” (2022). Taking all of this into account, Researcher Naki\u0107 Rado\u0161 (2018) found that women are twice as likely to be affected by anxiety than men, and that one in five women is highly anxious postpartum. <\/span><\/div>\n
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This leads us into the current issue and prevalence of Postpartum Depression (PPD). Postpartumdepression.org (2022), states “One recent study found that 1 in 7 women may experience postpartum depression in the year after giving birth. With approximately 4 million live births occurring each year in the United States, this equates to almost 600,000 postpartum depression diagnoses”. Furthermore, it is estimated that 50% of mothers who have postpartum depression are not diagnosed. If this is true, this means that there is likely another 600,000 women suffering from PPD that have not been diagnosed.<\/span><\/div>\n

Another issue on the rise and that is incredibly significant is that the US has one of the highest rates of maternal mortality in developed countries. According to the CDC.gov (2022) maternal mortality rates have increased from 754 in 2019 to 861 women in 2020. <\/span><\/p>\n

Keeping all of these facts in mind, The US seemingly falls short in providing extensive policies for women to protect their mental and bodily health. For example, paid maternity leave is not required in every state. In fact, Tennessee does not require employers to give their employees paid maternity leave. Furthermore, maternity leave within the US is significantly shorter (averaging 2-3 month) than that of other countries around the world, such as Europe (averaging 6 months). Keeping this in mind, it is normal for pregnant and new mothers to experience minor mental health effects as a result of the many changes the body and mind goes through to have a baby. However, our system within the US promotes an environment where these women are unable to get the proper care they need to thrive postpartum, and receive the mental health care they need from the very beginning. As a result of the lack of care and understanding from our country, these women suffer the tremendous consequences of severe mental illness and the inability to move forward. Many women do not understand the prevalence of mental illnesses associated with being a mother. W<\/span>omen need more intervention tools and support.\u00a0From the very beginning we aren’t supporting the mental health of our mothers, which is why these interventions have been created.<\/span><\/p>\n

Interventions<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Mission<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

In creating these two projects: an online course and a podcast, our mission is to reach as many moms as possible through interventions that are both accessible to everyone and applicable to any mom and woman no matter where she is at in her motherhood journey. Furthermore, it is our priority to abolish shame associated with motherhood, and provide support and educations for every mom, taking into account every diverse and unique situation: biological, step, adoptive, disabled, working, stay-at-home, etc…<\/span><\/p>\n

Goals<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The goals of The Busy Mom\u2019s Guide to the Anxious Brain<\/strong> are to:<\/span><\/p>\n

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