This week we are talking with guest Jen Schwartz, the founder of Motherhood Understood about Maternal Mental Health Awareness. We talk about Jen's journey with Postpartum Depression and how she got help. We discuss how the stigma around Maternal Mental Health still exists and that there aren't enough resources to prepare and educate moms to be about the possibility to being hit by some form of PPD. We talk about how Jen is creating a community to help moms have this conversation and realize that we are not alone. Lastly, we also raise awareness around Bell Lets Talk Day (in Canada), a day focused on raising funds and helping reduce the stigma around mental health issues.
Jen Schwartz is the medicated mommy who picked up the debris left by postpartum depression and anxiety and created MOTHERHOOD-UNDERSTOOD, a platform for the 1 in 7 moms affected by maternal mental health issues and the community she couldn’t find while struggling in a dark closet all by herself after the birth of her son. Jen gives permission slips to women who aren’t exactly enamored with their new role as mommy, so they can allow themselves to be the most real and honest versions of themselves. She helps them empathize, share, and connect with others who speak their language—moms who understand that new mommy life isn’t always the way it looks on Instagram. Jen is committed to shining the light on the darkest of places, where maternal mental health taboos have been hiding out, trying to make us believe that we are not enough and all alone. Jen is a writer, speaker, and influencer whose work and commentary has been featured all over the mommy blogosphere and on popular websites like Forbes, Bustle, The Mighty, Healthline, The Bump, Pop Sugar Moms, Scary Mommy, CafeMom and more. Recently, 2020 Moms named Jen their 2019 Blue Dot Project National Spokeswoman and Inspire partnered with her to create and run their maternal mental health online community forum. Though she will always consider herself a New Yorker, Jen now lives in Charlotte, NC with her husband Jason, tiny human Mason, and fur baby Harry Potter.