{"id":48501,"date":"2026-02-27T01:44:34","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T09:44:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=48501"},"modified":"2026-02-26T08:43:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T16:43:10","slug":"personal-stories-vital-lessons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2026\/02\/27\/personal-stories-vital-lessons\/","title":{"rendered":"Personal stories, vital lessons"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIn the pages of this book,\u201d write Oga Nwobosi and Christina Myers, co-editors of Beyond Blue: Stories of Heartbreak, Healing and Hope in Postpartum Depression<\/i>, \u201creaders will find the personal stories of 26 writers who all encountered some variety of perinatal mood disorder, whether officially diagnosed at the time or identified only in retrospect many years after the fact. There is rage and sadness and tears and trauma; there is also hope and humour and healing. What these stories have in common is the vulnerability it requires to share out loud \u2013 one of the most powerful manifestations of courage.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"image<\/a>Nwobosi and Myers, who met in 2007 at a meet-up of new mothers facilitated by the Pacific Post Partum Support Society in Richmond, note that, while \u201cperinatal mood disorders are better known and openly discussed today than they were then, there are still too many layers of stigma, shame, isolation and uncertainty. Many people still don\u2019t get timely help; most don\u2019t get any help at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is a lot to learn from reading Beyond Blue<\/i>, notably that \u201cdepression,\u201d or feeling \u201cblue\u201d doesn\u2019t begin to cover the complexities of postpartum depression. It takes many forms \u2013 sadness, fear, pain, exhaustion, anger, some of the above, all the above, and so many other configurations. It\u2019s not a matter of every woman feeling any one thing or all women experiencing the same range of emotions and physical sensations. Every instance is different, in both causes (to the extent they can be known) and effects. Every woman is different, not only in personality, but in health, social and other circumstances.<\/p>\n

Leanne Charette, for instance, has cerebral palsy. \u201cI pushed for many long months, trying to get apathetic, or downright ableist, doctors to help me achieve the dream of birthing children from my disabled body,\u201d she writes. The doctors\u2019 attitudes impacted her, of course, increasing her anxiety, among other things. She not only successfully conceived, but gave birth to twin boys.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs my children were placed in my arms for the first time, their tiny fingers and IV tubes tangling with my own, a hypervigilance awoke alongside the all-consuming love in my heart,\u201d writes Charette. \u201cSleep became impossible. For days, as we waited to be discharged from the hospital, I would hardly close my eyes, convinced my children might be taken away, starved or harmed in the space of a blink.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other women also write about the fear of someone, including themselves, harming their children. Sleeplessness is common, as are feelings of guilt about so many aspects of motherhood, such as having trouble during pregnancy, giving birth or breastfeeding.<\/p>\n

Contributors talk about good and bad advice they received while struggling with postpartum depression. In a few instances, seeing a mental health professional was life-saving.<\/p>\n

Jewish community member Kelley Korbin is one of the contributors. Her bio notes, \u201cShe is the proud mum of three thriving adults, but the early years were not easy as she experienced the shame, anxiety and confusion of postpartum depression following two of her pregnancies.\u201d Her essay is about the first turbulent year of her son Jake\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust half a day into motherhood I was doubting my ability to nurture,\u201d writes Korbin. Weeks later, things were not going well. \u201cIf Jake was awake \u2013 and he was awake most of the time \u2013 he was either fitfully nursing or crying.\u201d<\/p>\n

Korbin mustered the courage to ask the public health nurse what she was doing wrong. \u201c\u2018Colic,\u2019 the nurse pronounced, and hastily retreated to the get-away car she had parked in the driveway. I was drowning, but she had thrown me the teeniest of life preservers,\u201d writes Korbin. \u201cArmed with a diagnosis, however vague, and the doggedness of my gritty pre-motherhood persona, I scoured the parenting sections of bookstores and libraries.\u201d<\/p>\n

What she found was that \u201cevening colic\u201d normally \u201cvanishes after three months.\u201d Even though Jake cried all day, not just at night, Korbin started the countdown. After \u201cthe promised three-month colic finish line\u201d came and went, she took Jake back to the doctor for the \u201cumpteenth visit.\u201d He pronounced Jake healthy, but warned the colic wouldn\u2019t end soon. Two months later, she started therapy. By Jake\u2019s first birthday, \u201che was sleeping through the night,\u201d and so was Korbin.<\/p>\n

Beyond Blue<\/i> should be read by anyone who\u2019s thinking about having children, new parents, and everyone who knows someone who\u2019s just had kids. So, basically, everyone.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIn the pages of this book,\u201d write Oga Nwobosi and Christina Myers, co-editors of Beyond Blue: Stories of Heartbreak, Healing and Hope in Postpartum Depression, \u201creaders will find the personal stories of 26 writers who all encountered some variety of perinatal mood disorder, whether officially diagnosed at the time or identified only in retrospect many […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[784],"tags":[24664,3076,3429,2864,24667,24666,3021,24665],"class_list":["post-48501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","tag-beyond-blue","tag-education","tag-family","tag-health","tag-kelley-korbin","tag-postpartum-depression","tag-women","tag-womens-health"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48501\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}