SELF CARE
There are an abundance of resources and additional information on Perinatal Depression available on the web. Here are a few self-care resources that we found to be particularly interesting and helpful.
ECHO Manual
The ECHO Manual is a workbook created for women with depression at a clinic in Michigan. However, it is a useful tool for women everywhere to use to help with self-care and discovery. This in a downloadable, printable workbook that you can write in and take with you to your doctor or therapist appointments. ECHO Patient Manual
Additional Resources
HeretoHelp is a mental health and substance use website provided free to the public by the BC Partners for Mental Health and Addiction Information in Vancouver, Canada. This website offers a free, downloadable six module workbook for women to work through on their own to learn skills that can help them self-manage their depression symptoms with Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy based techniques. Here to Help
Health Nexus is a Canadian organization dedicated to health promotion. They have several mental health resources available on their website both for free and for purchase. Although most of the free resources are for clinicians, there is one self-help workbook for women living with depression available for free download.
Health Nexus
Postpartum Progress is an organization centered around fighting stigma and providing peer support to women battling postpartum mental illness. They have a “6 Things” series with six helpful hints surrounding various topics related to postpartum mental illness such as: “6 things that affect your recovery time,” and “6 surprising symptoms.” This particular link directs you to the “Six Things You Should Avoid If You Have Postpartum Depression” document. But from this link, you can navigate to the others in the series. Postpartum Progress
This is a schedule of the offerings of Postpartum Support International online support groups. It does require free membership. Support groups are available in English and Spanish. Postpartum Support International
Smart Patients is an online community for patients and their caregivers for a variety of illnesses. Partnering with Postpartum Progress, they have developed a Perinatal Mental Health community for members to connect with each other. Smart Patients