Synopsis

Across the globe, governmental health boards, including the CDC, are reporting on the increasing complexity of maternal mental health. These reports also cite the high unmet need for support that mothers around the world experience. Current headlines from UNICEF, Harvard, The Guardian, americanprogress.org & more, scream: “World not delivering quality maternal health care to poorest mothers!” “9.8 million working mothers in the US are suffering from burnout!” and “America is failing its black mothers!” As Charlotte Naughton wrote in her article, “Why don’t we care about new mother’s suffering?” nearly half of British mothers experience an emotional or mental health problem that could go on to have long-term effects on their relationships with their children or spouses.

As mothers, we have to remember how to prioritize our mental health. In order to do this, we have to appear “selfish” by no longer putting our children or our men before our own needs. Understanding what our base-line self care requirements are is tantamount. We have to be able to identify when and how we need help and, as mothers, we must have a community that we can turn towards.

Yet, in light of broken families due to intergenerational trauma, living in a culture that expects us to move away from our families of origin and the breakdown of in-person community, how do we do this?
We have to know how to create the village we each so desperately need. We need to think outside of the box and be creative problem solvers. We can crowdfund our needs - from our postpartum periods to vacation getaways for the whole family or even an annual sabbatical just for Mama. Everyone deserves support and a break.

At 37-years of age and after the birth of my only child, my life-long educator lens shifted its gaze towards women’s health and well-being. In response to what I noticed was lacking then (in 2014), I created numerous programs for supporting mothers, children and families. I worked with friends and clients to set themselves up for success during their first 40 days after labor and delivery. I volunteered at my local birth center and held a free, weekly meeting for new mothers and their babies. I opened up my suburban home as a “one stop shop” where mothers could leave their children safely supervised in our backyard children’s garden as they enjoyed massage, acupuncture and other activities designed to promote their self care, inside.

As well, in the wake of my life partner’s death and the onslaught of Covid, I prioritized mine and my son’s mental health. I did this by buying a van and hitting the road. Over three, separate Mama Caravan tours, my son and I spent ample time in nature where I soothed my nervous system, with frequent cold dips in bodies of water found in the Pacific Northwest for example. Driving over 12,000 miles in total, I had the time and space to feel, express and release all of my feelings, including my grief, rage and fear. I had to do this because given my personal trauma from losing the love of my life to having experienced early childhood emotional and physical abuse, I knew that mine and my son’s emotional bodies would not survive isolation and social distancing intact.

Sales arguments

• According to the UK’s Mental Health Organization, approximately 68% of women and 57% of men with mental health problems are parents. As well, poor parental mental health on children costs British society roughly 8.1 billion dollars per year.
• Superficially, The Mama Caravan is the tale of one mama’s cross-country adventures in healing her and her son’s hearts from the greatest loss they have known. Under the surface, however, The Mama Caravan is a maternal mental health map for how to navigate the stormy seas of parenting, loss and grief while staying relatively afloat in a world turned upside down by a global pandemic.
• My social media network, of +5,ooo people, has been clamoring to read The Mama Caravan for over a year now. Published in various worldwide, online magazines and platforms, such as Elephant Journal and the Esperanza Project, as well as in the Huffington Post on Mother’s Day 2022, I have also been featured numerous times in publications such as the San Diego Union Tribune, SD Voyager, Shout Out So Cal and more, for my embodiment work as well as my past work in maternal mental health.
• For a locally grown, San Diego Mama, my web of connection is strong - from midwives, doulas and other experts in the field of maternal mental health, to mothers across the USA, Central and South America, as well as the globe, who have been doing their best to weather the storms of parenthood in this brave new world.

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Audience

Mothers