BLUE STORIES AUDIO INTERVIEWS:
We have invited people to talk about perinatal depression from many different perspectives. Here is a selection of our inspiring audio interviews for you to listen to and share with others. Ngā mihi nui to all who have contributed and shared their knowledge, experience and stories. The Blue Stories Project has been recorded with the support of VenueTech, our founders and team. We invite you to explore the Project and listen to these audio interviews.
Liora Noy - Registered Nurse, Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) and Educator at Perinatal Anxiety & Depression Aotearoa (PADA)
Liora is a registered nurse and lactation consultant (IBCLC), with a Masters in Public Health and a Graduate Diploma in Psychology. Liora runs breastfeeding and parenting support clinics in Wellington and in the Hutt, and teaches antenatal childbirth and breastfeeding classes. She is also an accredited facilitator of the Circle of Security parenting programme.
Originally from Mexico, Liora has lived in Israel, California and Hawaii and has worked with a variety of ethnic populations and refugees. She has three children, aged 13 to 22. She is passionate about supporting parents affected by Postnatal Distress, having been deeply affected herself by PND. She was a peer counsellor for Little Shadow (formerly PND Wellington) and facilitated SPACE groups for mums with PND. Now as PADA’s educator, Liora regularly conducts presentations about perinatal mental health to a variety of providers and groups. In her spare time, she loves dancing, teaching dance, long walks in the bush and ocean swims.
Newtown Breastfeeding and Parenting Support Centre: http://www.wellingtonbreastfeeding.co.nz/
Perinatal Anxiety & Depression Aotearoa (PADA): https://pada.nz/
Sela Jane Hopgood – Initiator and Creator of A Mother’s Cry Multimedia Project
“Mālō e lelei, my name is Sela Jane Hopgood, 30 years old, born and raised in Auckland, New Zealand and of Tongan descent.”
Sela is passionate about mental health wellbeing because she has seen the consequences first hand of what happens when someone experiences anxiety, depression and in her case, perinatal depression. Being of Pasifika heritage, people taking care of their mental health and wellbeing is important to her because Pacific people in New Zealand have the highest rates of depression. Sela says that “thankfully for me, I was able to seek professional medical help and have the support of my husband, which has seen me on the road to recovery and enjoying life more, and that has only heightened my passion to share my knowledge on mental health, talk about my experiences and be all ears to listen to people’s stories.”
Sela published a multimedia project through RNZ called A Mother’s Cry, which focused on the high rates of perinatal depression among Pasifika mothers in Aotearoa. She created this project to reduce the stigma of this type of depression in her community and to inform others, so that everyone can do their bit to help parents who may find themselves in this position. The project included three lived experiences from Pasifika mothers as well as a first-person account from Sela on what perinatal depression looks like and why it is important to seek professional help, but also confide in someone that is trusted, letting them know what’s going on, so that people can have a support person with them on this journey.
A Mother’s Cry: Pasifika journalist speaks out on having perinatal depression: 'It got so bad'
Le Va, an organisations which supports Pasifika families and communities to unleash their full potential and have the best possible health and wellbeing outcomes: https://www.leva.co.nz/
Link to Poly Mama Community Facebook official group, where Polynesian mamas all over the world connect!
Jane Fausett – Peer Support Facilitator at Well Women Franklin
Jane Fausett is a mum to three daughters and a son, now aged between 15 and 22 years of age. The journey through postnatal depression was at times very challenging for Jane but was also one of great personal growth. This journey enabled an exciting career change when she joined Well Women Franklin as a Peer Support Facilitator in 2013. Over the last eight years, Jane has seen the organisation grow exponentially to where it now supports over 100 women with five group sessions per week. Jane facilitates the peer support groups with two other colleagues, Cathy and Rachel, and Jane and Cathy run the Well Women Telephone Support Service. Jane also offers 1:1 peer coaching services at Well Women, as part of an individualised recovery programme.
“It is a privilege to walk alongside courageous mums to support and encourage them on their well-being journey.”
Well Women Franklin: https://www.wellwomenfranklin.org.nz/
Joanne Teina - the Kaumātua and Kaiārahi Māori at Perinatal Anxiety & Depression Aotearoa (PADA)
Joanne Teina is wife to John, mother to 11, godmother to two and is Nanny Jo to 15 mokopuna and one great-mokopuna. She is a daughter, a sister, an aunty, and a cousin to many. Her passion was and still is to restore traditional Māori birth knowledge and wisdom to whānau through wananga Hapūtanga. Joanne’s other passion is Maternal Mental Health, due to her own lived experience. She is the current Kaumātua and Kaiārahi Māori at Perinatal Anxiety & Depression Aotearoa (PADA).
I asked Joanne to share with us a whakataukī. This is a favourite of hers taught to her by a beautiful Kaiako Kukupa Tirakatene:
“E kore e taea e te whenu kotahi ki te raranga i te whaariki kia moohio taatou ki a taatou.
Maa te mahi tahi on nga whenu, maa te mahi tahi o nga kairaranga, ka oti tenei whaariki.
I te otinga me titiro taatou i nga mea pai ka puta mai aa tana waa, me titiro hoki ki nga raaranga i makere naa te mea, he koorero ano kei reira.”
“The tapestry of understanding cannot be woven by one strand alone.
Only by the working together of strands and the working together of weavers will such a tapestry be completed.
With its completion let us look at the good that comes from it, and in time we should also look at those stitches which have been dropped because, they also have a message.”
Perinatal Anxiety & Depression Aotearoa (PADA): https://pada.nz/
Brendon Smith – Paternal Mental Health Advocate
Brendon Smith grew up in Manurewa. He was working in engineering sales and had children in his late 30s. One was a happy full term, natural birth and then the next was a tricky ‘placenta previa’ situation where Mum was in National Women’s from 24 weeks. Their baby was born at 31 weeks and was in SCBU for three weeks and, soon after, Brendon became the at-home Dad. He struggled at first and was lost and depressed. Then he found the Father and Child Trust and became their Auckland guy. Brendon has supported many dads and families, hosted the Fathers’ Mauri Ora Circle since 2009 and collated the Why Dads? booklets. He joined PADA in 2012 and he presents at PADA Training Days and at Plunket or Wellchild seminars.
Kidz Need Dadz: https://www.kidzneeddadz.org.nz/
Great Fathers: https://www.greatfathers.org.nz/
Liz MacDonald – Consultant Psychiatrist at the Mother and Baby Service in Ōtautahi Christchurch
Liz MacDonald is a consultant psychiatrist with a Postgraduate Diploma in Infant Mental Health. She has worked at the Mother and Baby Service in Christchurch for many years, initially in the outpatient service and for the last ten years in the inpatient service, where she is Clinical Head. She is involved in a number of national and binational groups including the Australasian Marcé Committee.
Liz first became interested in the mental health of mothers when she was training in Scotland. It became her favourite area of psychiatry. However, she was dismayed by the ward environment that pregnant women or women with babies were admitted to in the hospital that she trained in - there was a fog of cigarette smoke everywhere, the ward space was shared with very unwell patients who were predominantly male , and there were no specialised interventions. Liz was very impressed to come to New Zealand and Christchurch and see a specialised Mother and Baby service run by very passionate and caring people, where mothers could receive hospital help in a safe way, and in a physical setting that could accommodate babies up to the age of 1 year old.
“I feel I have been very lucky to be part of this service over the years, and see the service develop as we understand more about the needs of the infant and the vital role we have in supporting the emotional relationship between parents and their babies,” says Liz. She also notes that the importance of fathers and their own emotional needs have been increasingly understood. “We invite dads (or other key whānau members) to be part of any admission, as much as possible.”
Liz says that “it is a privilege to be part of this service, and the work is very rewarding, and never boring! It truly is satisfying to know that we can help mothers navigate a difficult time, and by doing so also ensure the best outcomes for their babies.” Liz is always painfully aware of the limited resources that exist, and the large and often unmet need for women with mental illness in the community who cannot access a service like Mother and Baby - and so she sees advocacy and education as an equally important part of her role.
Treena Cooper – General Manager at Perinatal Anxiety & Depression Aotearoa (PADA), 2013 - 2022
Treena Cooper, is a Kiwi living in Wellington. Before having her children, Treena trained as a Corporate Travel Consultant and travelled the world with her husband. Treena had her first son when she was 30 and her second son 18 months later. Treena says that, “as a usually patient and happy woman, I was taken aback when I became angry and out of sorts.” Not knowing that postnatal depression can present as anger, she did not seek any support.
When Treena’s boys started school, she took on an Administrator role at Perinatal Anxiety & Depression Aotearoa (PADA) and eight years later, she is the General Manager. A large part of her role is facilitating training and education through the PADA seminar series and online chats, along with overseeing the PADA team, connecting with stakeholders and reporting to the PADA Board.
Perinatal Anxiety & Depression Aotearoa (PADA): https://pada.nz/
Aaron Agnew - Clinician with RISE and the Dad’s Program Facilitator
Aaron Agnew’s focus has always been helping people to grow and develop. This started with Adventure Therapy and working with groups in the outdoors and progressed from there to studying Counselling and working for the Department of Corrections running programs for men and youth in the justice system. Andrew’s current role is with RISE, a family violence specialist agency. His aim is still the same, to help people develop for themselves and for the people they are connected to. Lately this has been working with dads. Responding to a gap in the community, the Dads’ Program aims to help build confident, connected, compassionate and resilient dads and whānau members for the sake of these men and for their partners and children. Aaron says that “parenting is difficult and we are all equipped in different ways to manage this, by equipping these dads now we hope to equip our future generations for better health and wellbeing outcomes.”
Aaron can personally relate as a husband and dad (to twin four year olds). Running this program is a good reminder to himself of the need to manage his wellbeing and be aware of how he parents and relates to his children and wife. He looks after himself through exercise and having adventures in the outdoors (running, mountain biking, tramping and, if possible, surfing). Aaron says that “parenting is a difficult but amazing thing to do. It asks lots of questions of yourself and in turn you ask a lot of questions about your children and frustratingly the answers only come with patience.”
Find more information about the Dads Programme on RISE website: https://www.rise.net.nz/adults
Meagan Goodman (they/she) - a mother sharing her blue story experience
Meagan Goodman (they/she) is originally from the US. Meagan moved to Aotearoa in 2011 and has two children, who are five and eight. She is currently finishing her Master's in Psychology and works therapeutically with young people and their whānau. Meagan is queer and gender fluid, and is especially passionate about supporting queer youth in their wellbeing. Meagan suffered from PND with both of her children, which was a lonely, and at times, scary experience. Community, exercise, and nature all helped Meagan through the experience. Now Meagan uses attachment theory in the therapeutic work she does and is particularly interested in supporting families to thrive.
Amy Plaisted - Midwife and Healing Birth Practitioner
"Kia Ora, I’m Amy, a mum of two toddlers, a midwife and a healing birth practitioner."
Mental health has always been an area of concern and interest for Amy. After having her first baby, she had mild depression. After having her second, she again sank into depression and anxiety, but this time it was severe. She didn’t want to live, and had intrusive thoughts of harming her son. Appropriate support was almost impossible to find. Thanks to the amazing team at Perinatal Wellbeing, Amy was admitted to the Mothers and Babies ward for five weeks.
With the help of her psychologist, medications and an incredible team of family and friends, she got through. A year on from her inpatient stay, and she has hope again. She loves her kids and they get a mum who adores them. Amy was so close to being a statistic, to leaving her husband and children without her.
Amy has since completed the healing birth practitioner training, and offers sessions to parents who need to debrief their trauma, offering an empathetic ear and strategies to manage their distress. She uses these skills in her midwifery practice, to support women in making their own choices about birth and parenting.
"I think the mental health service in NZ is a long way off being fit for purpose," Amy says. “We need to look after our babies by looking after our parents, to show this generation that it really does take a village.“
Amy’s website Envision Birthing: https://www.envisionbirthing.co.nz/
Organisations and people mentioned during our interview: Healing Birth, My Birth Story Project, Birth Trauma Aotearoa and Perinatal Wellbeing Canterbury.
Michelle Hall - Founder and Facilitator of True Colours – Honouring the Mother, a maternal mental health service in Tauranga
Ko Waitakere tōku pae maunga
Ko Waitemata tōku moana
Ko Whau tōku awa
Ko True Love tōku waka
Ko Patrick Donovan te rangatira o runga
Ko Aerana tōku iwi
Ko Devey tōku hapu
Ko Hall tōku whānau
Ko Michelle tōku ingoa
Originally from Tāmaki Makaurau, Michelle Hall has called Tauranga Moana her home for the past 16 years and she lives in Welcome Bay with her husband, Robert, and their daughter. Michelle is the founder of True Colours – Honouring the Mother, a mental health service in Tauranga, and is currently studying towards her Applied Masters of Social Work. With an eclectic working background in hospitality, science, health and disability and mental health, Michelle feels passionate about walking alongside women navigating the life changing role of motherhood and assisting their movement from distress to finding their joy. She describes this as her ‘heart work’ as she created the service because of her own lived experience of postnatal depression and the barriers to accessing help, including the societal stigma and shame associated with mental health issues.
Funded by the local Primary Health Organisation, True Colours - Honouring the Mother, has been supporting women in the Bay of Plenty for five years and offers a safe space for mothers to connect in their vulnerability. The peer support groups offer connection without fear of judgement or comparison and provide an opportunity to be part of a supportive, empathetic community that understands the profound emotional and social changes, including roles, relationships, and responsibilities, that influence a woman’s emotional wellbeing. Mothers nurture the next generation, making this a sacred and honoured role which can be one of the happiest and most challenging times of a woman’s life. Michelle has witnessed how parental distress during the perinatal period, due to isolation, lack of support and societal expectations, can increase the risk of depression and anxiety, having long term detrimental effects for parents, their babies, their whānau/family wellbeing, and on future generations. Michelle’s Masters research aims to explore how New Zealand society values motherhood by embracing, educating and empowering mothers throughout their perinatal experience and the implications for their wellbeing and maternal mental health. Specifically, it will identify the challenges of and preparation for this transition into motherhood and explore how preventative cultural and holistic approaches are used to support this transition.
Ko te whaea te takere o te waka
Mothers are like the hull of a canoe, they are the HEART of the family
True Colours - Honouring the mothers Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/truecolourspnd
Lisa Gear - Mental Wellbeing Navigator for the Central Lakes area. Role scoped by Te Hau Toka Southern Lakes Wellbeing Group, contracted through Central Lakes Family Services
Lisa Gear is a registered nurse with 30 years experience and a passion for family support and perinatal care. Lisa has a Diploma of Nursing, a Postgraduate Diploma of Health Science and is currently working towards a Master of Nursing (MNurs) – specialising in Perinatal Psychiatry and Infant Mental Health. Lisa is based out of Central Lakes Family Services (CLFS) in Queenstown and sits alongside new and existing clinical roles. She is the Mental Wellbeing Navigator for the Central Lakes, Queenstown Lakes and Fiordland regions - a new role which has been funded by Central Lakes Family Service in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Lisa’s role involves providing clear pathways to mental health services available within the Central Lakes community, identifying critical gaps and working to connect services to those in need.
“After the birth of my second child, I experienced moderate to severe postnatal depression and did not recognise it in myself.” Lisa says that having a clinical background, she found it extremely difficult to reach out for help and assistance and had little knowledge of where to go. She was lucky enough to have a strong family support network, employment situation and clinical help. Lisa says, “I was able to make a full recovery, even going on to have a third uneventful pregnancy and subsequent positive postnatal experience.” This has given her a passion for working with struggling new and expectant parents. In her role as Mental Wellbeing Navigator, she has discovered a real lack of services across the region and very unequitable perinatal services throughout the country. So far, she has been able to develop a support directory of all the perinatal services in the area and connect all the services together. CLFS have also developed a Perinatal Support Programme aimed at supporting parents in the antenatal phase in order to prevent/support continued mental health difficulties after the birth of their babies. Lisa is a strong believer in involving the whole whānau in the perinatal period. “It’s the simple things that make the difference.”
Central Lakes Family Services (CLFS) in Queenstown website: https://www.clfs.co.nz/
Te Hau Toka Southern Lakes Wellbeing Group Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/tehautoka/
Precious Beginning - a parental mental health support group in Wanaka: https://www.preciousbeginnings.org.nz/
Bex Deva - Maternal Mental Health Advocate, Co-director of Kindred Studio and the Evolve Festival
Bex Deva has been drawn to the cycles and seasons of life since her teenage years, when her work during a fine art foundation course was deeply influenced by the human body and the feminine. A mother of four, Bex knows that the journey of pregnancy, birth and motherhood is life-changing and it has/does provide her with some of her life's most joyous and challenging moments.
Acknowledging the magic, significance and challenge in life’s rites of passage, such as birth and mothering, is a passion that keeps Bex growing and glowing. Bex connects with women prenatally and postnatally to support them to find confidence in their own journey, sharing tools that build mind-body connection for wellbeing into motherhood and beyond.
Bex co-directs Kindred Studio, a yoga, massage and dance space, and the biennial Evolve Festival, in Nelson, with her husband. Kindred offers classes and courses for Pregnancy and Mums and Bub's Yoga. It also hosts the local CHOICE BABY- Nelson’s Natural Parenting and Home Birth Group’s monthly meetings. Bex also teaches classes and courses in yoga and Nia dance nationally.
Kindred Studio website: https://kindredstudio.co.nz/
Organisations mentioned during our interview: Choice Baby Nelson, LunaBloom, South Perinatal Collective, Kirsty Fernandes from Honouring Māmās and KeiShana Coursey from Opti-mum.
Angeline Forlong - Integrative Nutrition Health Coach and Chairperson of Maternal Mental Wellbeing Marlborough Board of Trustees (2022)
Angeline's passion is seeing people thrive and become the absolute best version of themselves in every area of life. For years she battled with poor self image, lack of confidence and serious mental health issues. She had no zest for life and every day was a struggle. When she hit rock bottom at the age of 26, trying to raise two young boys and keep her marriage alive, she decided that she had to start fighting for a better life and to find a better way. She is so grateful that she did. She discovered a whole person approach to wellness and in 2020 she decided it was time to teach others how to take back their lives and get that zest that makes all the difference to our journeys here in this beautiful and sometimes scary world. She graduated from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in July of 2021.
Maternal Mental Wellbeing Marlborough website: https://www.maternalmentalwellbeing.com/
Angeline Forlong Integrative Health Coach website: https://www.angelineforlong.com/
Jeremy Forlong - the partner and supporter of someone who suffered perinatal depression
Jeremy and his wife were new parents and quickly found themselves struggling. During a conversation with Jeremy’s employer about being unable to come to some work shifts, Jeremy was asked if his wife had PND. He wasn't even aware that was a thing. Once they were in a place where they recognised that the anxiety and depression was there, Jeremy was able to reach out to Postnatal Depression Marlborough and seek an appointment with a lovely counselor, Tatiana. His wife was initially reluctant to attend, but after the session they both felt relieved to know that their experience wasn't unique to just them and that there was support available. The peace and joy in their home dramatically improved after they sought help, their two boys are now both school age and they have been married just over nine years.
Jeremy said: “We would like to see awareness of postnatal anxiety and depression increase in the community and among expecting couples. We would also like to see support groups actively engaging these young parents in the community.”
Harriet Denham - Clinical Manager at Perinatal Support Nelson (PSN)
Harriet Denham, originally from the UK, moved to New Zealand / Aotearoa in 2003. She is a mother of 2 girls who are now 21 and 18 years old. In 2007 she studied the Certificate in Counselling at NMIT in Nelson and went onto study the Diploma of Counselling for the next 4 years. As part of her studies she had a placement at Perinatal Support Nelson (PSN) as a Support Worker, along with working as a telephone counsellor for LifeLinc and a counsellor at Victory Community Centre. In 2012 she graduated and became a Counsellor for PSN, a role she did for a few years. She was also working as the Clinical Manager at LifeLinc, which she did for 5 years, a role she has returned to this year. During her time with PSN she has always held a position on the Board and only gave that up once she became the Clinical Manager in 2018. Her involvement with PSN has spanned 11 years in many roles with 3 years now as the Clinical Manager.
Perinatal Support Nelson: www.pndnelson.org.nz
Helen Williams - Counsellor and Support Worker at Perinatal Support Nelson (PSN)
Helen Williams is a counsellor with a Bi-Cultural Counselling degree and has worked for many NGO'S in the community including Victory Community Centre, LifeLinc, the Women's Centre and Perinatal Support. She also worked at Nelson City Medical for a year and now has her private practice, although she still is connected and works for Perinatal Support and does some work for SASH (Sexual Abuse Survivors Healing) as well.
Helen says, “I have been with Perinatal support for 5 years and as well as counselling and supporting the mums, my work has included facilitating groups for mums experiencing postnatal depression and adjusting to becoming mothers. I am passionate about the importance of working with women at this special time of their lives - the work done with mums benefits them, their babies, partners, extended family/whanau and ripples out to the community. Like the whakatauki "Ko te whaea te takere o te waka" - Mothers are like the hull of a canoe, they are the heart of the family.
I feel when counselling I'm where I am meant to be. I appreciate the variety and the nature of the work in counselling and I enjoy the age span. My youngest client is 14 years old and my oldest is 82 years old. I value the work that is done within the therapeutic relationship. I once read a quote, "When the therapeutic relationship is at it's best - unconditional, selfless, volitional and thoughtful love is what the counsellor is offering" and I have found that within the therapeutic relationship this usually develops easily and can be so healing.”
Sophie Best - a mother sharing her blue story experience
Sophie Best, originally from the UK, moved with her Kiwi husband to the Nelson region when they were ready to start a family. She is a mother of two girls, who are now 11 and 8 years old. She suffered from perinatal depression after the birth of her first daughter. She shares her blue story of that experience and her journey of getting out of the perinatal depression.
Lysanne Van Zessen - a mother sharing her blue story experience
Lysanne Van Zessen, originally from the Netherlands, moved with her Kiwi partner to New Zealand six year ago. She is a mother of a girl, who is now 2 years old. She suffered from perinatal depression after a very complicated birth. She shares her blue story of that experience and her journey of getting out of the perinatal depression.
Facebook Groups Supporting Mothers’ in the Nelson region:
Nelson Mums (and Mums To Be) Support Group, Mums & Bubs in Nelson, Nelson's Super Mums.