Maternal mental health expert Karen Kleiman is tackling the stigma of postpartum depression and anxiety, one comic at a time.
Kleiman has a background in psychology and social work and is the founder of The Postpartum Stress Center, an institution based in Rosemont, Pennsylvania, that’s provided support to pregnant and postpartum women for 30 years. Collaborating with illustrator Molly McIntyre, Kleiman has released comics inspired by submissions to the center’s #speakthesecret campaign, which allows moms to anonymously share the “scary thoughts” they might be having about motherhood.
“The magic of these comics is that they are the unspoken thoughts,” Kleiman said.
Kleiman and McIntyre have turned their work into a book, Good Moms Have Scary Thoughts: A Healing Guide to the Secret Fears of New Mothers, which comes out in March. Kleiman told HuffPost she hopes the collection of comics encourages other moms to open up about their feelings and seek help.
“Despite recent attention to postpartum depression and anxiety, women continue to be silenced by the taboo against expressing negative feelings and thoughts about being a mother,” she said. “Enormous guilt and fear that there is something fundamentally wrong with them can keep women from talking about this which only serves to prolong their suffering.”
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