“Shame focuses it on the I AM. I am a bad mother. PPD makes you question your identity. You begin to focus on the I—how terrible, and bad I am. I am unworthy. PPD attacks the narrative of who you are. ”

Anita, mother of one, learned she was a carrier for the BRCA (an abbreviation for breast cancer gene) mutation one month after her wedding. According to the National Breast Cancer Foundation, every human being has the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes.…

Fairly felt she wasn’t living up to her role of wife and mother. She heard these words to move on and knew people were judging her for not having it together. She felt like a failure—and more importantly, a disappointment to her loving husband and child.

What struck me about Stacy’s story is how much mothers take on as the primary caregiver. She and her peers felt they had to be superwoman—the perfect mom—just like our moms were.

“I loved my daughter from day one, and I couldn’t imagine my life without her. I was so protective of her. But there was a part of me that was like, what am I doing? I don’t even recognize myself. I don’t recognize my body. I don’t think I’m fit to be a mother.”

If you’ve been on Instagram, you may have noticed a trending photo of Indian mother Nima Bhakta. She died of postpartum depression. This story really irked me. I’m not a mother, but I know lots of mothers. I’ve always struggled…

A year ago, my husband and I were driving with a car packed full of my younger cousins. We were returning home from a fun afternoon of hanging out in downtown Seattle, blasting Young Thug, without a care in the…

When I was 10 years old, I remember feeling like the only person who hadn’t been “filled with the Holy Spirit.” Growing up in a Pentecostal context, our church was trying to recreate the infamous Acts 2 Upper Room moment—the…

I was first exposed to the conversation on mental illness when I began dating my husband in 2016. When we met, he was writing an article about the church, and it’s often, poor response to mental illness. Very early on…