Here Are Ways You Can Help Raise Maternal Mental Health Awareness:
Distribute awareness materials and hang posters
Host a diaper drive
Host a documentary screening followed by an expert panel discussion
Work with your local government to proclaim May Maternal Mental Health Awareness Month
LEARN MORE BELOW:
Hang Posters and Distribute Palm Cards
Grab your family or some mom-friends and spend 2-3 hours distributing palm cards and hanging posters in your community.
Check out the available materials here.
Hold a Diaper Drive
Organize a diaper baby drive to raise awareness about the link between a diaper or formula need and postpartum depression. You choose the non-profit in your community to donate to.
Host a Film Screening
Host a public screening in partnership with your hospital or a local community center and show a documentary, hosting an expert discussion post screening. (Experts could be therapists with PMH-C certifications, OBs or Psychiatrists with fellowship training in maternal mental health, researchers who have published studies addressing maternal mental health and mothers or family members with lived experience).
The Dark Side of the Full Moon
This documentary details several women’s journeys with postpartum depression.
When the Bough Breaks: A Documentary about Postpartum Depression
From the Ashes
This short film documents a Black mother’s 9-year struggle with postpartum depression, through imagry and poetry.
Return to Zero: A True Story of Love, Loss, and Hope
This is a feature film starring Minnie Driver about one woman’s experience with stillbirth and the emotional aftermath.
Create a Maternal Mental Health Awareness Month Proclamation
1. Find your local or state elected officials:
For a village/city proclamation, determine who is your Selectman, Alderman, County Commissioner or City Councilor. This can be done by visiting your city or town’s website or contacting the city or town clerk's office and telling them where you live and asking who represents you. Ask the clerk for the best way to contact your elected official. Some elected official's websites will have a link specifically to request proclamations.
For a state proclamation, visit your state’s website or contact the governor's office and ask who should be contacted to request a state proclamation.
2. Download the template and edit all the RED text areas in both the cover letter AND the 2nd page with proclamation wording with the information appropriate for your local official and area.
You can find the number of births in past years from your state, city or county vital records. Check your local/state department of public health and look for birth statistics, and use the latest stats you can find.
Make sure that you change all the text back to black after you have edited it.
3. Send the proclamation request to your elected official(s) and support them in announcing it’s passage.