Sarah: Hi guys. Welcome back. This is Sarah.
Whitney: And Whitney.
Sarah: Today we're going to kind of talk about why you're getting screened from us. What is this screening? What is these 10 questions that we always send you Emails notifications about?
Whitney: What's the purpose of it
Sarah: And why we really think you can benefit
Whitney: Or the importance of being honest.
Sarah: Yes. So, this is called Edinburg postnatal depression scale. This was developed back; I believe like in the 1980s. And it was Scottish or something, England Scottish, something like that. And it was made for an outpatient or an in-home setting. So that's super important to know that yeah, it was made for finding more of a comfort of honest answering.
Whitney: Yes, absolutely.
Sarah: Which if you guys have ex had it before, a lot of people tell me it's thrown at you, maybe handed it to you. You're trying to get out of your appointments if you're being screened and you're during pregnancy visits or maybe when you're being discharged. After you've really tired from not sleeping that night in the hospital. Cause no one sleeps in the hospital. Or maybe it's a six week follow up mm-hmm <affirmative> where again, it may or may not felt personalized to you or that you felt comfortable answering.
Whitney: Agreed. And so, I know for me personally, with both my daughters, which I delivered at the same hospital with them, it was given to me on day after delivery. So, the day in between delivering and discharge, so day two in the hospital, it was given to me in my little discharge folder. And because I’ve worked in labor and delivery, I knew what the Edinburg was. I was able to answer it. But at the same time, given what my job was, I almost didn't want to answer it fully honest because I thought, well, am I going to be judged because this is my job. But I feel like I'm struggling with anxiety.
I kind of worried that. And so more so with my first than my second, I definitely feel like I experienced more of the postpartum anxiety with my first, over my second one. And so, and I went through, and I was like, oh, you know, I feel a little worried sometimes, but I'm a first-time mom, nothing that's, you know, crazy or anything like that. So, the nurses were like, okay, that's fine. But if you ever experience anything worse than that, reach out to your provider, which was appropriate feedback for them to give me, because I did score low on it. So, I don't fault them for not reading more into it.
Sarah: Right. And you know, I know I was never screened, so we'll, I’ll have a whole different experience than that. Oh, my goodness. But to their credit, I didn't go to my six weeks follow up appointment with my first. But I was suffering then. And to get out the house.
Whitney: And that was with your first, correct? It's so hard to get outta the house with that first child.
Sarah: I didn't even, I didn't have, we didn't have family by us. So it was, my husband was his job, He could not take time. So that's partly on me on that one. But I wasn't even screened in the, I was in the hospital for four days because I had a C-section and then I was in the NICU for 10 days as well. And the NICU is I believe supposed to be screening moms too.
Whitney: I hope so. Just because obviously, something has happened for baby to be a NICU. It's a traumatic delivery, a premi baby multiples, things of that nature.
Sarah: Nobody really, nobody wants to be in the NICU.
Whitney: No good heavens. No
Sarah: Even with our second, he was in there for a night. It was during COVID time. They didn't have the nursery. And he was a little bit breathing fast from the C-section. And so, they're like he needs to go in the NICU for the night, for observation. I was totally fine with that because I knew what great care, they gave my first son. And I was like, if something's going to be wrong, they're going to catch it. And I'm so tired if I don't hear him next to me. So that was, but then again, I mean, so we have two different experiences, I think with the screenings. But the bottom line is, I feel like screening Would've been very telling for me.
Whitney: Oh, a hundred percent. And then the thing is to because I had been a patient of my OBS for several, several years. I can remember going up there at maybe like two weeks postpartum, something like that to do my FMLA paperwork. And he started asking me, well, are you sleeping? I tried to play it off, oh, it's the newborn [04:47 inaudible]. And he was the one that really caught it where he was like, no, Whitney, are you really okay? And eventually I ended up telling him, no, I won't sleep Even when she sleeps, because I'm terrified of SIDS.
Sarah: Same.
Whitney: Because I had those intrusive thoughts of if I fall asleep, she's going to die of SIDS. And when I had told my OB that he met me with compassion as any provider should, whether it's your OB, a midwife, doula, therapist, whomever. And he said, well, if SIDS is the ultimate route of your anxiety, then talk to your pediatrician about getting a SIDS monitor. Because you've got to be able to sleep. You can't function on no sleep.
Sarah: No. Same with me. I could not sleep with will. I would have my husband or my mom when she was there in the early days Watch him. I would not sleep unless someone was watching him.
Whitney: Absolutely.
Sarah: And that was right before [05:46 inaudible] came out.
Whitney: Okay. Yep. So, we ended using a snooze with my first daughter. I don't know if [05:52 inaudible] was a thing back in 2017.
Sarah: It will be 18 and it just Was a thing. It was expensive.
Whitney: Very expensive.
Sarah: It was not really like; people didn't talk about it too. Like people, I would be like, oh, I feel better if you were watching him or holding him. And they're like, oh, she's just nervous.
Whitney: First time mom Jitters.
Sarah: Right. Right. Yeah. So, and that I didn't feel really comfortable at that time asking my other friends, hey, do you guys sleep when your kid sleeps?
Whitney: Because we're always told to sleep when the baby sleeps. So, it's like, how are we supposed to do that?
Sarah: And even if you're not afraid or have an intrusive thought, it's always like, well, how do you think the laundry's going to get done? How do you think I want to shower when I haven't showered in 10 days? That feels like, yeah, really not 10 days, but you know, maybe hair 10 days.
Whitney: I was about to say, I know there was probably a stretch, at least with my first one where it was two or three days. And I was like, I feel disgusting.
Sarah: So, it's like, what else am I supposed to do?
Whitney: Exactly.
Sarah: Yeah. So, the Edinburg, when you get this in your email, think of it as being very honest and open. No judgment.
Whitney: You're listening to two moms that have experienced this.
Sarah: Yes.
Whitney: You're not alone at all.
Sarah: No. And if you're honest and you know, some of the questions of when they're asking about the past week. So, it's, you know, it was always hard for me to go, okay, is it bad day or past week? So that kind of was one thing. No one really talked to me about when they're and they're like, okay, look at the past week care. Is it a hard moment or has it been really hard? Is it getting better? Or is it just staying like, is the thoughts getting maybe more scary?
Whitney: Is it or more frequent?
Sarah: More frequent. Is the sleep not happening? Are you crying more? There is a suicidal question on there.
Whitney: There is. Yes.
Sarah: And you know, the thoughts of even saying yes, I had those. I was thinking about that, Was really hard.
Whitney: Oh, for sure. Because, and the reason these fears exist is because it's happened somewhere. So, there is a foundation for this fear and it's because moms are terrified that if they say yes, I'm struggling with suicidal thoughts, not that you have a plan or an intent to carry out those thoughts. Or, you know, you may have had an intrusive thought of, well, what's going to happen if I fall down the stairs with my baby or I can't handle this anymore, I just need to make an adoption plan for my baby or things like that. If you view that question as DHR or CPS, depending on the state that you live in is going to get called on me, or I'm going to get admitted to a psych ward and I'm going to be separated from my baby. And they're never going to let me have my baby anymore. Just know that that's not our goal.
Sarah: No, no.
Whitney: Our goal is to help you.
Sarah: I went and admitted to my therapist back in our previous episode we were talking about and said, yes, I'm having these thoughts. I had a plan in my head. Mm. And the more we talked about it, and I was honest about it. I didn't want to do it. And I was not taken away from my baby.
Whitney: Correct.
Sarah: I was safe. She insured the baby was safe. My family's aware, it was an open conversation. So, we know this may feel very impersonal at first.
Whitney: And vulnerable
Sarah: And hard. When you get this email and we're starting in the first trimester, one of the reasons why we're starting early is we believe that you guys need to know these questions.
Whitney: For sure.
Sarah: You need to have discussions with your friends and family. These are clueing in to if we see that you're answering. So, the score is zero to 30, right. There's different levels. You're going to get an individual score report whatever time. And it's going to, if it does show that maybe you're struggling with anxiety or some depressive thoughts. We're going to provide you with some resources.
Whitney: Absolutely.
Sarah: You come to these podcasts; you listen to us. You go to the videos. You reach out to Previa. And you say, I want to talk to somebody. I need help. So, all these screens, which are going to get frequently are doing is we're kind of keep you a baseline of you. We're track and trending it. So, if there's a huge jump where you were happy.
Whitney: Things were going well.
Sarah: You know, maybe a little stressed because hello, if you're pregnant, it gets uncomfortable.
Whitney: Yes, and all the things that you feel like you have to do to get ready for baby. And if you work full time and you can have any other children, it's a lot to juggle.
Sarah: So, you know, if we see a spike, that's okay. We figure, you know, it's common, it is to be expected. So, we're not going to jump in immediately and say, hey, are you, you know, but we're always have an open communication. And our goals through everything is to just explain it to you, how friends would talk. We're making this mental health topic Normal. Especially mom's mental health. So that if we do see that we need an intervention, and we reach out, we have a plan. And you know, you know these questions and you know, what's coming, so you can be honest.
Whitney: Absolutely.
Sarah: And so, when you get into the postpartum period of these screens, it's the same questions. But you may answer them differently.
Whitney: That's okay.
Sarah: That's totally fine. As we talked before hormones drop.
Whitney: Oh, my goodness.
Sarah: You basically have this little human that you've created. That's new to you. And you're new to them.
Whitney: They're learning how to be a human. And you're learning how to be a mom and you're recovering
Sarah: And if you have other children, that's a big change. You may have had a huge surgery. C-Section is, I mean, how many layers do they go through?
Whitney: I want to say it's like eight or nine.
Sarah: It's crazy. I've had two, it's a huge surgery. And then if you've labored or even if you've had the most perfect delivery, it's hard.
Whitney: Oh yeah.
Sarah: So just because things are really hard immediately doesn't mean they won't get better. And so just be aware, your scores may ebb and flow. Just like life does.
Whitney: Oh yeah, absolutely.
Sarah: So that's why we are going to send it to you. We may also be sending in, you know, it's PHQ. Am I saying it correctly?
Whitney: Yep.
Sarah: If we notice it's more anxiety driven. Which a lot of moms now anxiety is coming through.
Whitney: I would agree. I think more moms or I'm seeing more moms struggle with anxiety, more so than depression or sometimes it's mixed.
Sarah: Yeah. So, if we feel like maybe we want to get a little more deeper insight that could be sent to you. Or of course, if you're working with one of our therapists, they may use a multitude of screenings That you can tell us more. But what we just never want you to fill is we don't want you to feel like you can't be honest. We want this to be familiar.
Whitney: Absolutely.
Sarah: And we want you to please don't dread taking these. It's a checking.
Whitney: Yes. It's a checking and it's going to be consistent. You're never going to see this new question Get slapped on there to try and trick you or anything of that nature.
Sarah: We're really just trying to get a baseline, so that we catch it. There's actually great studies out that, you know, postpartum, depression and anxiety, half of it starts in pregnancy sometimes, cause it's such a life change.
Whitney: Huge.
Sarah: And you may have a high-risk pregnancy. You may have a stressful event in your life that occurs. Plus, a new child. I mean, you could have the fibroid issues. Yep. All these kinds of questions, which you're going to get on your personal health questionnaire when you sign up and you get a postpartum questionnaire. Those are important for us too. If you have had history of miscarriages, NICU babies, Losses. All these things that are important to us to know is we're just gathering information to best serve you. To best equip you
Whitney: And to match you with the best therapist. Depending on if that's something that you need.
Sarah: Exactly. So, when you get these emails from us, we hope, you know that it's a friend checking in.
Whitney: Absolutely.
Sarah: And that we're here to provide resources and tools. So please take your screens from us.
Whitney: We are here to help
Sarah: Reach out
Whitney: Judgment, free zone. I don't know if I can say that enough on each episode it is a judgment free zone here.
Sarah: There is nothing I'm sure that Whitney has never heard or seen.
Whitney: Oh, my gracious.
Sarah: As the therapies sessions continue on with her clients. And I say her mini sessions with me that when I meet up with her, but we're here for you. Till next time. We'll talk to you guys later.