Rachel Louise Moran | Oral History

Rachel Louise Moran

OH 2062

For the Postpartum Depression and Maternal Mental Health Oral History Project. Susan Dowd Stone is a licensed clinical social worker with a specialization in perinatal mental health, and a past-president of Postpartum Support International (PSI). She discusses her own training and career path, how she became involved in PSI, Depression After Delivery, and postpartum depression work through New Jersey First Lady Mary Jo Codey.

OH 2061

For the Postpartum Depression and Maternal Mental Health Oral History Project. Nancy Berchtold experienced postpartum psychosis and postpartum depression after the birth of her daughter in 1983. In 1985 she founded Depression After Delivery (DAD), the first specifically postpartum support/self-help/advocacy group in the United States. The organization grew through the late 1980s and into the 1990s, and DAD chapters formed all around the country.

OH 2060

For the Postpartum Depression and Maternal Mental Health Oral History Project. Nancy Byatt is a perinatal psychiatrist, and director of the UMass program Lifeline for Family Center and also the program Lifeline for Moms. The interview centers on her work as the founder of The Massachusetts Child Psychiatry Access Program for Moms (MCPAP for Moms). She discusses her training in psychiatry, her efforts to get MCPAP for Moms funded around 2010, and her involvement in statewide Massachusetts initiatives (Rep. Ellen Story Postpartum Depression Commission) around postpartum mental health.

OH 2058

For the Postpartum Depression and Maternal Mental Health Oral History Project. Adrienne Griffen is a postpartum depression policy advocate. She was a warmline volunteer for Postpartum Support International (PSI) mi the mid-2000s. Then she founded Postpartum Support Virginia (PSVa) in 2009, and served as executive director of the organization. In 2018 she founded the Maternal Mental Health Leadership Alliance, which advocates for federal policy changes around maternal mental health issues.

OH 2057

For the Postpartum Depression and Maternal Mental Health Oral History Project. Barbara L. Parry is a professor of psychiatry focused on women's mood disorders, especially postpartum depression and premenstrual disorders. She discusses her training and early research in the field, her work with light therapy and with sleep and circadian rhythms, and her time at the National Institutes for Health. She also discusses the American Psychiatric Association and the DSM-IV, with its fight over the diagnosis of postpartum mood disorders, including discussion of Robert Spitzer and Allen Frances.

OH 2055

For the Postpartum Depression and Maternal Mental Health Oral History Project. Susan Feingold is a psychologist with a specialization in women's perinatal mental health/postpartum depression/postpartum psychosis. Feingold discusses her own postpartum anxiety disorder in 1992, and her subsequent discovery of the postpartum advocacy group Depression After Delivery (DAD). Discusses her work as president of DAD from 1994-1996, as well as her work in private practice seeing postpartum patients, and her later involvement with Postpartum Support International.

OH 2054

For the Postpartum Depression and Maternal Mental Health Oral History Project. Carol Blocker is an advocate for sufferers of postpartum depression and postpartum psychosis. She discusses the life and illness of her daughter Melanie Blocker-Stokes who died by suicide amid postpartum psychosis in 2001, including her interactions with psychiatric professionals. Then Blocker discusses her advocacy work, through her Melanie Blocker-Stokes foundation, her testimony before Congress, and her activism around infanticide cases.

OH 2050

For the Postpartum Depression and Maternal Mental Health Oral History Project. Margaret Spinelli is a psychiatrist who specializes in postpartum depression and psychosis, neonaticide, and infanticide. She discusses her career in nursing and then switch to psychiatry, her work as an expert witness, her work in interpersonal psychotherapy. She explains the issues with the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) and her campaign to change the DSM-V. She discusses the case of Caroline Beale (1994) and Andrea Yates (2001).

OH 2049

For the Postpartum Depression and Maternal Mental Health Oral History Project. Barry M. Lewis is a criminal defense attorney who became involved with postpartum depression and psychosis related work in the 2010s. He discusses his entry to the field through his partner, Susan Feingold. Focus of the interview is on his and Feingold's work getting Illinois state law changed around postpartum mental illness as a mitigating factor in infanticide and related crimes. Discusses Illinois PA101-411, PA100-574, Paula Sims, and the role of Illinois state politics and governors.

OH 2048

For the Postpartum Depression and Maternal Mental Health Oral History Project. Ann Dunnewold her training in psychology, her own postpartum depression, and her entry into clinical work in maternal mental health. She discusses her introduction to Postpartum Support International in 1990, and her later presidency of the organization. She discusses other figures in postpartum activism, including Jane Honikman, Diane Sanford, and Susan Hickman. She explains changing ideas of postpartum psychology, especially the idea of self-care.