08/09/2026
Period. We live in a society that expects women to work like they donāt have children, and parent like they donāt have a job.
Postpartum depression feeds off isolation, hyper-independence, a broken economic system that forces mothers back to work far too soon, and a culture that convinces new parents they need countless expensive gadgets for their baby.
It feeds off a culture that celebrates new life by focusing on the baby while treating the mother as if sheās invisible once the baby has come Earthside.
We dote on the baby, want to visit and hold the little one, while forgetting to hold the one who birthedāand expecting her to carry on, bounce back, and not miss a beat.
Weāve become so far removed from traditional ways, where family and community gathered around the new mother with practical help, nourishing food, healing herbs, touch, wise guidance, ritual, witnessing, and celebration of this sacred rite of passage.
Mothers now think they should be able to do it all, alone. And when they struggle, they think thereās something wrong with them.
But it is the system, the culture, the lack of true care and support that is brokenānot the mother.
Postpartum depression seems to me to be an entirely appropriate response to such a fractured reality.
That doesnāt mean it isnāt real or deserving of compassionate care. It means we must look beyond the individual and examine the conditions in which mothers are expected to recover and parent.
In my work with families preparing to welcome a child, I educate them on the true needs of this tender season and help them create a postpartum plan that calls upon their people in meaningful, tangible ways.
I encourage simplicity when gathering baby āthings,ā and instead invite families to gather resources: extra hands to help, people to nourish them, hold them, feed them, and tend to them.
Centering the mother, always.
She is the nucleus of the family, the beacon, the barometer. Her well-being is paramount. When a mother is well, her baby is well. The care she receives ripples out to her baby, her partner, her family, her community.
PaĢnquetzanišæAncestral Healer
