A note from Marisa Wright - Creator of Mother Moon Project
I believe strongly in supporting mothers and their families. I believe that strong, healthy communities begin with pregnancy, birth and postpartum, when women are at their most vulnerable. In these moments they can find great strength and empowerment, which in turn creates great mothers, partners and pillars of the community.
More and more often, however, women are not supported during these times and experience subtle degradation, dis-empowerment and trauma. This isn’t everyone of course; our midwives are outstanding women doing their best to take care of the families they serve. The midwifery model in New Zealand is amazing; unfortunately there is a crisis within the model at the moment. The essence and structure of support for our midwives has been lost within the government; they are overworked, underpaid and many are at the point of exhaustion. In the last year thirteen midwives have left Tauranga, more have left the surrounding areas and more are planning to do so. I’ve sat with midwives, who through tears explain how much they want to give mothers the support they deserve but aren’t able to. First time mothers in Rotorua have to travel to Tauranga and Taupo due to the shortage.
As a result I’ve sat with mothers, and support them now, who have experienced trauma during labor and birth or who feel overwhelmed and unprepared for parenthood. Trauma is perceived differently on an individual basis; one woman’s empowering birth could be another’s traumatic experience. The underlying deciding factor that seems to always guide the experience is how much she felt supported and empowered. In this line of work we say, “find your village,” but communities remain disconnected. We say look after yourself mentally and physically, fill your cup, but without support this becomes impossible. The amazing women at Maternal Mental Health are doing their best but are over-loaded with women needing support and can only take on the more ‘extreme’ cases.
One mother I supported told me later she had worked up the courage to speak with her GP about feeling depressed and seeking counseling after a traumatic birth and postpartum experience, and was brushed aside. She said the GP seemed annoyed and told her she would have to make a separate appointment, that they have to dig into her entire mental history, that there wasn’t time. This woman is a very strong and grounded woman, having a passing and overwhelming experience. She chose to look after her well-being and was financially able to seek private support. Imagine how often this happens to the most vulnerable. Imagine if it happened to someone on the brink of collapsing into despair, into a postpartum mood disorder, and was so overwhelmed at the thought of making that next appointment, of having someone dig into her entire history, that she chose endure and suffer, as our ‘pioneer culture’ urges us to do, rather than seek help and get better.
An estimated 1 in 7 women experience postpartum depression (PPD) though experts theorize that this number is higher due to the stigma associated with reporting, that women feel ashamed. Many mothers assume the symptoms of PPD are just normal consequences of the fatigue and hormonal changes of motherhood. It is proven that postpartum depression becomes more prevalent the less support the mother and family have and can affect the ability to function in everyday life as well as increase the risk for anxiety, cognitive impairment, guilt, self blame and fear. It can lead to difficulty in providing developmentally appropriate care to infants, lead to a loss of pleasure or interest in life, sleep disturbances, feeling of irritability or anxiety, withdrawal from family and friends, crying and possibly thoughts of hurting oneself or one’s child.
There are other mood disorders as well. Women can develop panic disorders, obsessive compulsive disorders, and an estimated 6% of pregnant women and 10% of postpartum women develop anxiety. And estimated .1-.2% of women develops postpartum psychosis and of these women there is a 5% suicide and 4% infanticide rate. Partners can also develop postpartum mood disorders, an estimated 10% develop postpartum depression as well. This is tragic, and can be prevented or cared for in a gentle, loving way with a strong support network!
Seeing this, observing other cultures where care and interconnectedness are at the heart center and women aren’t developing postpartum mood disorders, I became extremely motivated to start building a village. I imagine an interwoven fabric to hold space for women. I seek relationships with other practitioners in the area and believe strongly that the more closely we work together the more it benefits the community. I created Mother Moon Project to help highlight these relationships and provide resources for new and expecting mothers. In our culture we often create space for our weddings, our honeymoons, we even hold space for babymoons. I wanted to create an opportunity to help prepare, welcome, empower and nourish new mothers, to support them in a holistic, grounded way.
In the beginning my thought was to simply have a resource page, but that still leaves the gap in care and accessibility. I’m often working on a sliding fee scale providing highly discounted or free services, my passion being helping women not making money, but that isn’t sustainable with a young family of my own. I often see newborns and mothers who would benefit hugely from seeing an osteopath, naturopath or chiropractor but can’t afford these services. Mothers would benefit and are often curious about a healthy diet during pregnancy and postpartum that supports growth and healing, but are often uneducated and unaware of the vast amount of resources available. For instance; 90% of serotonin, the ‘happy hormone,’ is produced in the digestive track. It makes sense that anxiety and stress lead to digestive issues, but alternatively a healthy diet can lead to a happier, more positive mindset and greater chance of success!
I’ve done a limited amount of fundraising in Montana, where I was practicing as a doula and lactation counselor for 5 years. This was simply reaching out and speaking at various events, explaining the need vs. gap in care, and asking for donations to provide support to mothers in need. This included paying birth and postpartum doulas in the area who couldn’t afford to work for free, as well as getting mothers set up with counseling, osteopathic and educational support. I started a doula collective, helping support new doulas and bring together those who were more experienced, all doing their part to strengthen the community.
In the future I envision training more doulas, bringing on more practitioners and expanding the availability of care! I dream about opening a retreat center where women could come get the care she needs, or call us to her home. Where she could find resources, guidance and support. This project has an incredible amount of potential, and it's starts with you!
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this. I hope that you feel as inspired as I do and would consider being a part of this groundbreaking work!