Happy Mother's Day for the lives you have nurtured and sustained that have immortalized your own existence, converging past, present and future in the face of your daughter or son. On this weekend, I wish you joyful peace, as holders of the profound maternal wisdom that connects you to eternity.
While this is indeed my hope for all who read this letter, for some, the reality may be different. It may be that life after baby's birth has not yet fulfilled your dreams, that the joy and totality of the complete maternal experience has eluded you. You may feel separate instead of bonded to your child, a panicked indifference to the experience and a deep sadness that robs your baby's smile of its ability to move you. If this is where you find yourself, please do not stand alone, but reach out to your loved ones and receive their willing support. Allow the universality of the birth experience to unite you with those who understand and lift you and your sweet babe safely to your path again.
I speak not only to mothers whose living babies are at the breast, but to those mothers who stand with empty arms, eyes fixed on a distant horizon where too brief a life has wandered, a mother nonetheless. This mother may not find a kinship in her isolated mourning; we must reach out to her and lead her to her rightful place among us for babies seen and unseen never leave us.
I speak to mothers whose infants babble, whose infants cannot yet come home, whose children are grown, disabled or gone. I speak to my own mother and her mother before her and God's entire kingdom of mothers be they two or four footed, yet swimming or flying among us. The endeavor of procreation is a serious business it is the industry of life ever lasting yet we cast a smile as we carry ancient secrets within us.
We are all of us, mothers of earth who claim this day as ours and say to all that we are the hope and the future that sustains and nurtures, who facilitate renewal; ours is a passage through heaven and hell for the sake of life. But in each instance we meet such challenge with joyful open arms and fervant depth of purpose that makes us accessible and mysterious, formidable and gentle, raging and loving. I am thankful to stand among you, thankful to say to my mother and to hear from my child Happy Mother's Day.
Thank you to those of you, who, through your organizations or individual requests, have added your name to support The Melanie Blocker Stokes MOTHERS Act. The best gift you can give present and future mothers on this day is to support the legislation that will help end the suffering of mothers and infants in the next year and your daughters and granddaughters to come. Please click here http://www.perinatalpro.com/ppdlegislation.html to join our efforts to end the misery endured by up to 800,000 women in America. The petition will be presented to U.S. Senate HELP committee members next week and currently represents over a million Americans who support this lifesaving legislation.
In another fantastic step forward, Gerald F. Joseph Jr, MD or Louisiana, the 60th president of the The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists indicated that postpartum depression will be the major theme of his presidential initiative. His leadership will be a welcome addition to our team of powerful advocates. You can read his entire statement by clicking here http://www.acog.org/from_home/publications/press_releases/nr05-06-09-1.cfm
www.perinatalpro.com