Rejection of Stigma Leads to Renewal

Mother, 13 States Advocate for Awareness of Pregnancy-Related Depression

Nicole Barnett, husband Jeff and their daughters, from left, Naomi, Joy and Karis. Barnett overcame a reluctance "to talk about mental health" and was treated for postpartum depression. Much improved for more than a year, she speaks to medical professionals about the condition from a patient's perspective. (By Rafael Crisostomo For The Washington Post)

Looking back, Nicole Barnett thinks the symptoms started shortly after her youngest daughter, Joy, was born a little over two years ago.

Barnett, 36, noticed that she wasn't quite feeling like herself. She tired easily and, no matter how much sleep she got, she always felt exhausted. In time, she could barely muster the strength to do the laundry or wash dishes. She lost interest in her church, and she stopped going to the hair salon. Even braiding her three girls' hair and making such mundane decisions as what color school folders to buy her oldest daughter seemed overwhelming.

"I started doubting my abilities as a mother," said Barnett, of Upper Marlboro.

Barnett eventually learned that she was suffering from perinatal depression, also known as postpartum depression when it occurs after birth. With medicine and therapy, she's been feeling better for more than year. Now she's trying to enlighten other women she meets and medical professionals about pregnancy-related depression from a patient's perspective.

Her personal message is bolstered by a new national campaign established to highlight the problem and seriousness of perinatal depression in pregnant women and new mothers. Maryland, Virginia, 11 other states and the District recently received federal grant money through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to provide education about the illness in their jurisdictions.

Maryland's portion -- $250,000 -- will help pay mental health experts to teach health-care professionals about how to identify, treat and work with women struggling with the illness. Of the $250,000, Prince George's gets $16,462, according to Christine McKee, director of public education at the Mental Health Association of Maryland.

The state's campaign, "Healthy New Moms: Maryland's Campaign to End Depression During and After Pregnancy," has also set aside part of the grant for a toll-free hotline for women with perinatal depression, and to operate a new Web site about the condition.

According to health statistics, perinatal depression affects one in eight women who are pregnant or recently gave birth. Barnett was astonished to learn that she was one of them.

"Nobody ever talked to me about depression," she said. "I hate to say it, but in the African American community, we just don't talk about mental health."

Barnett, a homemaker, said she tried to avoid accepting what her doctors suspected was postpartum depression. In February 2005, when Joy was 4 months old, Barnett said she hit a low point. She was so tired and overwhelmed she could barely function.

She called her doctor, who said she could have an iron or thyroid problem. But the more likely scenario, the doctor said, was that she was suffering from postpartum depression.

Barnett, not wanting to be identified as someone with a mental health issue, chose to take iron pills and thyroid medicine. They didn't help.