Last spring, Minnesota’s postpartum support community was in full swing with the Daisy Dash 5K and NAMI’s Beyond the Baby Blues conference. This year, the conference featured the groundbreaking feature length documentary film Dark Side of the Full Moon, which explores the history of maternal mental health in the U.S. and beyond.
One of the film’s producers, Jennifer Silliman generously agreed to share her personal story with us, as well as a bit of the film’s evolution and her advice for new moms.
Jennifer lives in Florida with her husband and daughter. She worked in local television and advocacy for ten years before shifting her focus to maternal mental health advocacy. She recently created an online self-care experience called “Ready. Set. Shine!” The goal is for new moms to get back to self-care and become a part of a community of peers who want to do the same.
Personal experience seems to be the inspiration for your work in postpartum health. Tell us more about that.
I experienced pregnancy anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder with intrusive thoughts. The symptoms started at the beginning of my third trimester and continued until I sought treatment 3 months postpartum. Little did I know I had 6 risk factors; previous experience with anxiety and OCD, my mother is bi-polar, high-risk pregnancy, traumatic birth, cesarean section, and a baby in the NICU. I had no idea what I was experiencing when I became symptomatic so I made it my mission to begin educating my community and to create resources for families.
What, more than anything, helped you get through your struggles with postpartum mood disorders?
What helped me most through my struggle was my psychiatrist who literally saved my life. She did a thorough evaluation, listened to me, understood me, shared stories of other moms and got me on the correct meds the first time. The most important thing she did was discuss my medications with me. She explained what I would find when I “Googled” it and I’m so happy she did. All of this wouldn’t have been possible without having the support of my husband who drove me to my appointment and cared for our daughter while I got the help I needed.
How did Dark Side of the Full Moon come about?
It’s such a neat story, which is why it became part of the narrative in the film. Maureen, the writer and director, was hired to film my daughter for an autism training video. She came to our home and ultimately turned the camera on me for an interview and my maternal mental health experience came up in conversation. Maureen asked me on the spot without hesitation to make this film with her and two weeks later she was back at my home to start planning it out!
What surprised you – if anything – while making the film? What did you learn?
I think the biggest surprise was that I knew there were huge cracks in the system but our journey confirmed that there aren’t cracks in the system; it confirmed that there’s no system. While we had the chance to see wonderful things happening, it’s just not enough. So this was both surprising and disappointing.
What piece of advice do you have for all new mothers?
My advice for all new moms is having a great support system in place so you can self-care. I think so many moms just assume that since you’re a new mom you won’t eat well, you don’t sleep, you don’t shower, etc. and this may be true for the first few days after bringing baby home, but weeks of this type behavior is not normal. I want moms to have someone available to bring her meals, do a load of laundry, and take care of the baby for an hour. These things are worth so much more than anything you can put on a baby registry.
What do you want the world to know about postpartum mood disorders?
I actually love that you posed the question this way. My hope is that we change how we use the terminology. While I was experiencing my initial symptoms I didn’t think it could have anything to do with my pregnancy because all I ever heard was PPD, postpartum depression. I was neither depressed or in the postpartum period. So I advocate for using the term “maternal mental health complications” because it is a spectrum of symptoms that can occur during pregnancy and/or during the postpartum period and beyond.
Tell us about Ready. Set. Shine! & Momstomoms.
momsTOmoms is a website I started in 2012 which basically houses all the maternal mental health resources in my county. One of those resources was my in-person support groups also called momsTOmoms, which are now done virtually. I decided to go virtual to reach more moms and overcome the barriers that prevented moms from getting to my in-person groups. Ready. Set. Shine! is my newest venture for moms that are ready to get back to self-care. Some of the moms participating have overcome a maternal mental health complication but some just feel like they’ve lost their sense of self and want to feel good again! The experience is completely online. The cost is a one-time fee of $99.00 for lifetime access to the experience.
What’s next for you? Anything cool on the horizon?
Well I’m looking forward to my 2-week vacation in November. It’s been non-stop for the last three years and I’m hoping to get back into some great self-care routines myself. Next year I hope to focus attention on my county and improve the experience for mothers and families here. Building relationships with local non-profits is key to making this happen! A long-term goal I have is to start a day program at one of our local hospitals so moms can receive treatment and have childcare provided on-site.