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One Mother’s Story
Amanda Lehrling is a recent graduate of the University of Arizona, earning a Master’s degree with a concentration in school counseling. She recently worked with new parents and couples awaiting the birth of a child. With special insight and compassion about postpartum depression (PPD), Amanda referred many of the new mothers she counseled to the Healthy, Optimistic Perinatal Experience (HOPE) project at St. Joseph’s Hospital. She herself benefited from the program only last summer.
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Her son was not yet two when Amanda delivered her second child, a baby girl. She had no problems after her first child was born, and things were good for the first several weeks after her daughter’s birth.
“When I got St. Joseph’s six-week screening call after Natalia was born, I was fine,” Amanda recalls. However, by the time her daughter was three months old, Amanda was no longer fine. “Everything crashed down at once,” she says. “I felt overwhelmed and isolated and thought I was actually going crazy. I had no idea PPD was real or that I had it.”
Thankfully, Amanda recognized that she needed help and used St. Joseph’s PPD services.
“I am so grateful for [St. Joseph’s PPD nurse] Terry Scallon’s support during a time that was overwhelming for me. I attended the postpartum support group from June through September of 2008, when everything was falling apart in my life. Terry also helped me find grant money that enabled me to receive six sessions of individual counseling. Without that and the support group, I don’t know how I could have coped,” Amanda reveals.
Thankfully, today Amanda and her family are doing well. “I have a lot of gratitude for Terry’s resources, which helped me navigate my way back, and I thank God for her guidance and compassion. My own experience will help me recognize the need for compassion for those I work with in my career as a counselor. In this way, my challenges were not suffered in vain, but for a larger purpose.”