FORTVILLE — Leah Yancy remembers the darkness. Her pregnancy was normal, and her newborn baby girl was a delight. But 11 weeks later, when Yancy began thinking about going back to work, that the walls fell in.
“I knew what depression was like,” Yancy said, “but it was severe anxiety and the OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder) that I had never experienced before.”
Yancy, the Climb Leader — the main organizer — for Indiana’s 2018 Climb Out of the Darkness walk, sought help. She returned to work, but after three months, took a leave of absence.
Climb Out of the Darkness, an event designed to promote awareness, treatment and resources for mental health issues related to childbirth, will take place from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at Flat Fork Creek Park, 16141 E. 101st St.
The message is: You are not alone.
With the knowledge that one in seven women suffer from postpartum depression, the mission, Yancy understands the importance of the message.
“I knew I was struggling,” she said. “I tried to find therapists and doctors to treat me. I couldn’t find anybody.”
Walks will take place at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. in recognition of those who struggle with postpartum depression. Afterward and between the walks, women and families are invited to explore the park, enjoy a picnic lunch, visit with the vendors and make connections with others who understand the mental health disorders associated with childbirth.
Food trucks — Jersey Girls Italian Ice and 5280 Bistro — will be on hand for snacks or lunch food. The event also features raffle prizes including Kendra Scott jewelry, Scentsy gift baskets, passes to the NinjaZone indoor gym, and gift certificates for You Paint, Foxgardin Kitchen and Ale and yoga classes.
All funds raised from the event will go to the local chapter of Postpartum Support International (PSI).
PSI provides a lot of training for medical professionals, as well as resources for women and families seeking treatment, Yancy said. The training includes teaching those in the medical profession how to handle a crisis involving postpartum depression appropriately.
“The most important thing is to raise awareness of this mental health issue,” she said, “and to help de-stigmatize it.”
Yancy felt that many medical professionals brushed off her symptoms and didn’t take her seriously.
“They said, ‘Oh, you’ve just had a baby; you’re tired; you just have the baby blues,’” Yancy said. “The severity of my condition was just shrugged off.”
Sara Pollard, nurse-practitioner and volunteer with PSI, objects to the label “postpartum depression.”
Women can experience a myriad of psychiatric conditions — called perinatal mood and anxiety disorders — any time from the onset of pregnancy through the first year after delivery, Pollard explained.
“It’s about severity, duration and frequency of symptoms,” she said. “It can look a variety of different ways and be traced to a variety of causes from family history to hormones to trauma or the transition to becoming a parent.”
Through the help of volunteers like Pollard, Yancy finally found help from Postpartum Support International at postpartum.net. They helped her connect to a therapist and a doctor.
For Yancy, it was more than just medication.
“Some women can just take medication,” she said. “For me, the biggest thing of all was just the emotional support.”
For more information about postpartum depression, visit postpartum.net. To make a donation to the Indiana chapter of PSI, visit climb-out-2018.causevox.com/team/Indianapolis.
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Climb Out of the Darkness, an event to call attention to perinatal mood and anxiety disorders runs from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at Flat Fork Creek Park, 16141 E. 101st St. in Fortville. The event is free and open to families For more information, visit postpartum.net.
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