Kimberly Barnard-Bracey turned to a small group of women inside a room at Portsmouth Naval Medical Center on a recent weekday afternoon.
"So what's the topic this week?" said Barnard-Bracey, a licensed clinical social worker. "What've you guys got going on?"
Ashley Beer, holding her 7-month-old son, Travis, launched into a story of how she snapped at her husband recently — she was feeling overwhelmed as tasks like cleaning started to add up.
"When my kid was that age, I couldn't even get out of the house," said Jessica Limon, 25. "I'm terrified to go through it all again but . . . I'll have a support system. That makes all the difference in the world."
The intimate setting was a postpartum support group for military mothers, both service members and spouses. As the new moms chatted, their toddlers ran around the room, pushing water bottles off the table, crawling under chairs and stumbling over their mothers' feet.
It’s one of many local support groups to which the nonprofit Postpartum Support Virginia connects women struggling with postpartum depression and other perinatal mood and anxiety disorders. The organization, which also recently launched a Maternal Mental Health Coalition in the area, aims to change the conversation around postpartum depression.
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