[Music] of being well we're breaking down the taboo with Sarah Bush Lincoln's social worker Tara bjarkas and labor de livery nurse Jessica Skidmore who will talk about the importance of acknowledging not igno Mental Health when Sarah Bush Lincoln opened in 1977 it was with the promise to serve the community's health care needs it has grown into a two-hospital system with nearly 60 clinics that provide trusted Compassionate Care for over 50 years Horizon Health has been keeping you and your family healthy and although some things have changed Horizon Health's commitment to ever-changing needs of our community has remained the same Horizon Health 50 years strong Carl is redefining Health Care around you innovating new Solutions and offering all levels of care when and where you need it investing in technology and research to Healthcare Carl with Health Al always at the Forefront to help you thrive [Music] thank you for joining us for the final episode of this season of being well your host Lacey Spence and today we are talking about an incredibly important topic we are talking about postpartum depression and we've got two fabulous guests from Sarah Bush Lincoln we're in Mattoon joining us to talk about this topic so welcome to being well ladies appreciate you being here thank you thank you thanks for hav as new guests to the show I love for everyone at home to get to know who our providers are who we're speaking with so I'll have you guys introduce yourselves if you'd like to go fi Sarah bjarkas I'm a social worker at Sarah Bush Lincoln Hospital I cover our labor and delivery unit and also work with moms over in women's health care awesome and you my name is Jessica Skidmore I'm the patient care leader on the Women's and Children's unit be en a registered nurse for about 12 years awe all get into this for me um I knew early on I wanted to nurse and I knew I wan and delivery nurse and so th where I went and that' yeah I fell into labor and delivery a little bit I started out working on our adult med surg floor and then was moved down to labor and delivery so I've kind of tried to embrace it and and run with it ever since then and so you two both roles but I assume they complement each other for our topic today defini um do you mind just briefly kind of saying what it is that you and then how you also help the situation sure do you want to go first so I'm the social worker on our labo and delivery unit so I try to see every Mom after they deliver when I'm there just to do some education with them on perinatal mood and anxiety disorders and overall just check in to see how they're doing I will see any patie or send a referral to me that would be if any provider or the nurses have any concerns or identify any risk factors that could potentially put them at the higher risk for that postpartum depression or anxiety from there I will work with the and we'll work together to see what we can do to support that Mom before they leave the hospital but I also like said cover seeing patients in our C can follow them after they leave the hospital or discharge from the hosp and see them either a fo the clinic or even sometimes I'll touch base with them by phone between them gotcha and then so my job and the nurses on the floor we just help identify those red flags so if they've be the clinic setting we help to to identify those and then we get in touch with her and then we k the loop throughout thei sure they have the resources they yeah so definitely a can't do one without the other yes well fantastic so yes our topic postpartum depression I feel like it has maybe come to light a little bit more in recent years which is amazing that we finally talking about it I've he called the baby blues which is is kind of unsettling when it's like oh you're getting sent home wi of joy and you're like w the feelings that everyone thinks I should be feeling so first off how common is PPD so first off I guess we should start with the baby blues baby blues or any of those normal symptoms right after have a baby up to about th Mark okay so um you're trying to get into your new Norm you might not have the the quick Joy feeling that you think you're supposed to have anything beyond that two-week Mark is where we start to wards the postpartum depression or other perina blues period those first couple weeks your hormones are really out of so that's a big contributing factor as to why moms will see that like roller coaster of emotions where one minute you are so happy and crying because you're so happy you have this beautifu and then the next minute you're distraught and crying because the baby crying and you just don't know why you're yeah I don't know what to d what to do for the baby so um that roller coaster of emotions is very common but if we start to see th those emotions are more or extreme motions are just consistently occurring day to day not going away or like just that after that two-week period then we start looking at postpartum to some sort of perinatal mood and anxiety disorder gotcha so the first two weeks is mor it more hormone based yes after that it's other motivators I just want to make sure I understand yeah for the most um after you deliver it's hormonal okay and then anything beyond that th different risk factors tha little bit more prone for th beyond the two-week Mark is where we start looking at that stuff yeah so signs what am I looking at here what's what's starting to to creep up or happen that is kind of my warning flags so after those first couple weeks again those extreme emotions so perinatal Moon anxiety disorders can be a wide range of things depression anxiety OCD bipolar all of those things can occur postpartum most commonly we see postpartum depression anxiety but that's going to be again those extreme emotions of depression hopelessness having a hard time functioning a lot of moms will say I just didn't feel like myself I just didn't have any motivation to get up we're having a hard time bonding with baby or feeling that connection anxiety a lot of times we'll be excessive worrying now yes to the point where it's affecting your ability to care function on a daily basis and care for your baby we're not talking like you know most parents and especially first-time parents will have a lot of worryi about what ifs with their baby it 's to the point where you can't even take your eyes off your newborn an ybody else touch your newborn because you're afraid of what could happ we need to start looking at some postpartum anxiety or some moms will say they weren't able to sleep they weren't able to eat things like that wh start to see those signs those are most common what what we're what we're looking at and I mean you're already deal sleep deprivation and all of the othe things and then these very real in tense emotions creep in I mean so after these things are starting to materialize then what what can I do um who do I talk to because I know at least for some folks who have been in my circle who have kind of de kind of thing they where to turn to a the the girls chat the group chat you know just oh I'm just feeling all of these feelings and we try to be encouraging but professionals like you yeah so we give resources at discharge for moms like what to look for we also give that instructions to the dads or support person that's in the room because sometimes you sometimes you don't realize that it's that you're having those ot her people notice it before you um so the people that we've identified while they're on the unit and then Tara has saw them she will continue them after they discharge they do a screening tool at their postpartum check and then if there's anything identified also at th pediatrician's office check-in on the moms there too and I'm sorry if you had already co it but what kind of things are you looking out for while they're still the unit so we look out for not they're engaging with their baby are they changing their wanting to hold thei touching their bab things that we see first off but we just go over all of the emotions because like she said to begin with it's very normal so we just educate patients that what you're feeling now is normal but beyond that this is who you need to re to so yeah for some onso st art immediately and I think most commonly what we will see immediately after delivery is you can a lot of times even physically see a mom disconnected from their baby um Jess and I both have instances where we've seen moms just physically turn away and not even be able to look at their baby that's a big tell sign that something is going on but as far as you know resources and stuff available I actually encourage a lot of moms to use those friends that they have that have been through that because most co probably what you're experiencing And the emotions and thoughts that you have are very common so to jump at there's something wrong with me there's something wr sometimes it's just you need to vent to a friend and let somebody tell you it's okay you're doing a great job but if again a mom is not comfortable with how they're feeling emotionally or they feel like it's lasting longer than what they feel comfortable with en courage them to call and tha start by just calling the OB gyn's office and letting them know what's going on asking them if they can be as soon as possible in our office will do the very best they can to accomm that they can also just call and ask for the social worker I tell moms all the time call the office and ask so cial worker I'd be happy t talk to anybody just to see do you just need a minute are there some self-care things that we can Implement to help you out or do we need to look at other resources I do a lot of times if we see some of those risk factors or if we see a mom having symptoms immediately following delivery we'll talk abou counseling or crisis Services certainly if any mom started having thoughts of harm towards himself or baby we would want them to call the national 988 mental health line or come to our emergency room to be evaluated immediately there are some crisis resources available that somebody can just call and talk through those things but also just starting with calling the ob's office is a wonderful wonderful first step to getting help and it's such a relief to hear that there are these resources out there pers mom so I'm not sure what the climate has been over the years but at least things I've been heari weren't as readily available 20 some years ago so now that we're really looking at it is incredible one of the things that I also wanted to ask can this be brought on by maybe if birth didn't quite go as planned as well absolutely so there's different risk factors that make you more prone to postpartum depression or post storm anxiety or other perinatal ce rtainly if you have a history of postpartum depression that makes you more at risk for the nex birth events will really trigge sometimes so and that can be even as simple but not simple as you were you had this beautiful birth plan of a vaginal delivery and ended up having to have a C-section or maybe had a C-section and baby needed to go to the nursery immediately just for even a couple hours that can be traumatic for parents just that fear and completely against what you were prepared for can cause can cause some anxiety and it is going to put moms at higher risk but also you you miss out on those initial bonding moments with your baby and I think that's where sometimes we see moms start to struggle is yeah pull away is when they don't have that immediate bonding time with th didn't want to glance over it either you had mentioned that even though you've had it with the first child you can have it with multiple children then bu t it doesn't mean that you will so it could it could be that you have it with each pregnancy and it might be that you have it once and never have so just never really k so many things that play a role in that the biggest thing is again we look at those risk factors of History past history the support system that people have available how readily available that support system is the birth trauma and and if they've experienced any depression or anxiety during pregnancy those are the big ones that we look for and talk to moms about after they have babies and I know it's going to be individualized to each patient but if I'm somebody who has lived with depression prior to pregnancy an been medicated for that is that something that can continue to me dicated during pre pregnancy maybe things that need adjusted or looked at abso some people choose to stay on their medication some people off of it we have patien go right back on it as soon as they deliver you can ther medications that are safe while you're pregnant and they're s breastfeed the doctors are great resources and they know exac they can and can't pre Massey also a lactation consultant on the floor so if there's ever a question regarding breast into the loop yeah absolut think the biggest thing is just letting moms know that it's not black or white it's not you have to stop every medication and I'm just having conversations with your doctor or with whoever is involved to see what can we do to help we certainly don't want mom's feeling miserable during that we want people to enjoy their pregnancy and after and all of that and not feel like they have to push through that be it's against what they thought they would feel like or they're ashamed or anything like that we certainly want to help and there is help available and I do want to ask I'm not sure how much light you can shed on it but were a lot of these issues harder to catch during the pandemic or I think maybe more from the nursing side of things we limited the visitors in the room so maybe it was more obvious di dn't have the visitors in and co nstantly or they didn't the di dn't feel like they needed to host a bunch of people in their rooms yeah so I think maybe we were probably maybe even a little more yeah we had I feel like people had more time to bond with their baby focus on their baby and not immediately jump at the stress and the added stress that visitors and all that puts on parents so I feel like it even helped a little bit during the pandemic to limit that but it did I wouldn't say that we didn't identify it but obviously we ran into just like everything else resources and linking people with resources and things like that was a little more challenging but I feel like we were still able to take care of Moms we've had some moms deliver now since then like this is their second or third child and they one during the pandemic and they chose to continue that yes yes and have said that you know after discharge I li ttle hard for some people feeling isolated and not having famili and their supports around things like that but I feel like people are to feel better about it yeah well and then I I have to ask um definitely not to negate anything that a mother is going through but do fathers experience any sort of PPD as well absolutely what does it kind of li ke for them it can be very similar to what moms experience as many as one and 10 dads will have some sort of perinatal mood and anxiety disorder and it can be very similar it can be that ho pelessness detached from baby and can be extreme anxiety it can be all the same things that a mom experiences we don't talk a lot about that but it's a big life adjustment for a father as well going through that so it's like here's a couple weeks of classes and we make sure you got your car seat in the ba go all right here you go yeah you're sure What to Expect When You're Expecting and go absolutely it's a huge shift yes wanted to go back through my notes a little bit because you had hit anxiety a little bit but there's also OCD bipolar and psychosis can you talk about how those might present and maybe present more intensely than normal the other forms uh like the OCD and bipolar those are going to be similar those extreme emotions that extreme worrying OCD will be maybe excessive hand washing or excessively yeah wash fires washing the babies items washing the baby fear of germs things like that the psychosis at which I feel like has been brought to light um through media and things in recent months but that psychosis is going to be a more ext um you' quickly recognize that because the symptoms can be a little alarmy you know the hallucinations the thoughts of harm or directly not even just thoughts directly expressing harm towards yourself or the child um that people in your support system your partner or the father of your child is likely going to recognize that before you do so that's where again we try to talk to everyone in your support before you're discharged so that you recognize those things because it's going ma tter of as soon as you identify things you want to to get that wa nt to get that Mom's emergency room to have her checked out yeah and mo ther is checked out do you have any idea what that next step looks like is it being possibly admitted or medication like I'm sorry to be ignorant about the subject but just what what is th ere's certainly a wide range depending on where you're at and and where you're checked out and things like that we certainly want to mo ms contacting someone if they're not comfortable and so so that they're not fearful of the potential you know repercussions of that our focus is wanting to make sure that Mom can feel well and be back home with their baby if a mom comes into our emergency room or sees one of our doctors that might be a discussion of depression medication anxiety medicine something like that we might talk about medication interventi we might talk about getting so counseling therapy um but it might also include a potential inpatient admission to a behavioral health unit where a psychiatrist can see you daily tr eatment options and things like that in those situations we are primarily focused on that Mother's safety so if we feel like you know their Potential Threat to themselves or others we're going to look at a potential inpatient admission to get that stabilized and to someone watching at home I mean that might sound scary especially if you're walking through that absolut reason we're talking about thi because it is okay it's to talk about this because we want you to know how available these ar e to you for the health of yourself your child your family before we move on to the walk that we would like to talk about um in our last couple of minutes there anything that I didn't about the topic that wou for our viewers to know I don't think so I think the cove think the biggest thing again is just if you have any concerns or not comfortable with how you're feeling please just call please just start with a phone call and let us talk to you and let us help you and it's very normal I mean whether it happened to me it might have happened to you somebody you k somebody's experienced something zero judgment yeah that's what we want to talk about it and so like I said we're in our last couple of minutes clim of the darkness um there is a walk we're taping this in June for our viewers and you're about to kick off your inaugural walk can you talk about the event a little bit absolutely so the cl darkness was started on a whim yeah very quickly casual conversation between Jess and I talking about postpartum support International which is a National Organization that focuses primarily or solely on maternal mental health they provide resources education a wide range of things so I'm going to get certified through post-harm support International and started saying hey maybe we shou start talking about this in our community so this walk is an event through postpartum support International and the goal was just to see you see these things are other people wanting to talk about this how many people are wanting to talk about this what's the interest it was yeah it was really just to raise awareness in the community build connections among other people and tr to bring this into light and you might say on a whim I know there's a lot of thought and stuf behind it but um you know getting these well gett these resources out there is it 's not a whim it's a passion yeah absolutely um and so you're putting quickly to make sure that everythi right comes togeth expressed to me before we started Taping that you hope to make this a thing and so if you're looki information I'm sure you can find that Sarah Bush's website or page at least you can actually go directly to the climb out of Darkness Coles County Facebook page we have our own Facebook page through them and although our event will be in June we will continue posting all year round and we hope to make it bigger every year yeah excellent for new moms returning moms whoever be you're just there to support yes absolutely fantastic well Jessica Skidmore terabyarkas thank you so muc for coming on being well I appr this is an amazing topic and I' had you too to walk me through it you for having me thanks for havi of course and thank you viewers for joining us for this season of being well and we hope you us next year Carl is redefining Healthcare around you innovating new Solutions and offering all levels of care when and where you need it investing in technology and research to optimize Healthcare wi th Health Alliance is always at the Forefront to help you thrive for over 50 years Horizon Health has been keeping you and your family healthy and although some things have changed Horizon Health's commitment to ever-changing needs of our community has remained the same Horizon Health 50 years strong when Sarah Bush Lincoln opened in 1977 it was with the promise to serve the community's health care needs it has grown into a two-hospital system with nearly 60 clinics that provide trusted Compassionate Care [Music] thank you [Music]