EPS. 14 Postpartum Crisis and Healing in Motherhood: One Woman's Story of Postpartum Survival - Transcript
Episode 14: Postpartum Crisis and Healing in Motherhood: One Woman's Story of Postpartum Survival - Transcript
[00:04] Christi Gmyr: Welcome to Overcaffeinated and Out of Effs, the podcast for burned out, career-minded moms who are ready to stop pretending everything's fine and feel like themselves again.
[00:15] I'm your host, Christi Gmyr, burnout coach for moms, licensed therapist and mom of two. And I'm here to help you reclaim your energy, your identity, and your peace of mind.
[00:25] Whether you're lying awake thinking about the 87 things you didn't get done or silently resenting the people you love most,
[00:32] This is your space to feel seen, supported, and not so alone.
[00:36] So grab your coffee, hot, cold or day old, and let's get into it.
[00:47] Hey, everybody, it's Christi.
[00:50] Welcome to Overcaffeinated and Out of Effs.
[00:47] Before I introduce today's guest, I just wanted to give you a quick heads up and apologize during the recording of a few episodes. This being one of them, I was unfortunately having some audio issues just on my end.
[00:59] I did get them resolved. So rest assured, after these next two episodes you will not hear them anymore.
[01:05] So please excuse the poor quality again just on my end because the story and message that she shares is so powerful and is really one that I want all moms, especially new moms or women thinking about becoming moms, to hear.
[01:21] Christi Gmyr: Hey everybody, it's Christi.
[01:23] Welcome to Over Caffeinated and out of Effs.
[01:27] In today's episode, I'd like to welcome our guest, Georgia Stephens.
[01:32] Georgia is a certified child life specialist, postpartum doula, and the founder of the POD Center, a trauma informed space for families navigating early parenthood.
[01:44] But more than that, she is a survivor of severe postpartum depression, anxiety and undiagnosed complex PTSD.
[01:53] In 2019, after giving birth to her daughter, Georgia spiraled into a mental health crisis.
[01:59] With no local resources available, she boarded a one way flight with her infant and admitted herself into a maternal mental health program in Los Angeles.
[02:08] That decision saved her life and set her on a path to healing, advocacy and creating space for others.
[02:15] Since then, she's rebuilt her life as a single mother,
[02:18] navigated trauma recovery through EMDR and community support,
[02:22] and now lives with a blended family while supporting others through similar transitions.
[02:28] So I've invited Georgia here today to share her story.
[02:31] Talk about how she navigated recovery as a new mother struggling with postpartum depression. Because I know that this is something that so many moms struggle with.
[02:42] So Georgia, thank you so much for being here today.
[02:46] Georgia Stephens: Yeah, thank you so much for having me.
[02:51] Christi Gmyr: Yeah, of course. I'm so glad that you're here. So do you maybe mind if you want to just start by telling us a little bit about yourself, about maybe the early days after your daughter was born in terms of, you know, like, what were you expecting postpartum to look like?
[03:07] And what was the reality? What did it actually look like?
[03:12] Georgia Stephens: Yeah, so my daughter was born in El Paso, Texas, and we. We were feeling as prepared as we possibly could. You know, with our first child,
[03:25] I was still working. I was working as a child life specialist at a children's hospital there. And that's a role where you're providing psychosocial support to kids and their families while they're admitted in the hospital.
[03:39] And so I've held space for a lot of challenging transitions throughout my career and figured, you know, I've got lots of great resources. I've. I'm well supported. I've got a therapist.
[03:50] I'm ready to go. Like, I understood that there were going to be mental health risks involved.
[03:58] And so, yeah, we felt as prepared as we possibly could be. But I.
[04:03] I remember after she was born, and I had a much more challenging labor than I was anticipating.
[04:11] But I remember when we finally got home and it was kind of time like family members were starting to trickle out and leave and hop on their planes, I remember thinking, like, oh, my gosh, like,
[04:21] someone's gotta stay.
[04:24] I can't do this alone. And albeit I had my husband at the time with me, but I still felt this almost immediate sense of overwhelm and isolation in some ways.
[04:37] And so my stepmother ended up staying with us for another week. And I also was fortunate enough to be able to hire a postpartum doula to also support for a while.
[04:46] But it was striking to me, that sensation of even surrounded by people,
[04:55] how isolated I felt and how terrified I felt in those early days.
[05:00] And I fully wasn't expecting that. Definitely.
[05:06] Christi Gmyr: Yeah, no, absolutely. I think that that is something that,
[05:09] you know, so many people can relate to, this idea of not, you know, having an idea of what it's going to look like and not going the way that we expect.
[05:19] You know, I think that there are a lot of spreads for a lot of people now with your.
[05:25] With your experience in particular.
[05:27] You know, I'm curious.
[05:29] So at what point would you say, did you realize that what you were going through, the challenges that you were experiencing was maybe more than baby blues? You know, what were some of the signs that sort of suggested to you that something bigger or something deeper was going on?
[05:48] Georgia Stephens: Yeah, and I think that's a really good question. Cause it's. It's so hard to discern sometimes, especially when you're going through it. Cause there's a lot of distortions that are going on in your brain.
[06:00] And unless you really have people around you that are able to kind of know what your baseline is and flag it and help you kind of contextualize,
[06:13] it can be challenging. And I didn't do that. I didn't create kind of like that postpartum mental health plan of like, hey, here are my red flags. Like, if you're noticing that I'm not wanting to call any of my friends or family or.
[06:28] For me, it presented at first with a lot of anxiety, like, not wanting to allow people over to our house at all, not wanting to leave the house,
[06:38] just really staying inside and feeling very fearful about going into the outside world.
[06:44] And then, you know,
[06:47] I had to reenter the workforce. Right. As many of us do after 12 weeks of leave and not much.
[06:56] It's not much. And you're still sleep deprived. You're still struggling with those, like,
[07:01] those raw postpartum emotions, that. Which for me was. Was overwhelming anxiety. And so then you put that into the workspace where I was also,
[07:10] you know,
[07:11] holding space for other people's emotions and other people's fears and their children. And then all of a sudden, I'm a new mother, and I have this full other realm of emotional access that I didn't have before.
[07:23] Christi Gmyr: Right.
[07:24] Georgia Stephens: Like, I wasn't a mother as I was doing this job for the majority of my career. And then I go back into it and I'm a mother and I see these children and I feel feelings in a way that I didn't before.
[07:35] And that's really when think the tables started to turn and I started to realize that it was a darker spot. Like, I would really dread going into work. I would really dread going and.
[07:44] And talking to.
[07:46] To patients, because I.
[07:48] I was having an emotional experience with it that I never really had prior to giving birth. And no one really knew how to hold that space for me. I kind of remember being told, like,
[08:00] you know, my anxiety was so bad that I did seek the help of a psychiatrist who then, you know, we started working with antidepressants and. And Xanax at the time.
[08:10] And I remember kind of being told, like, well, just take a Xanax and go to work. Like, you gotta get through it.
[08:15] And,
[08:16] you know, I had one particular day at work where it was a really traumatic situation with a baby that was around the same size as my child, and I.
[08:27] I kind of.
[08:29] I lost it. Like, I got home that day and I couldn't stop crying. I Couldn't put my, my baby down. And I just felt like if anything happened to you, like, I would die.
[08:39] And that's when like the thoughts started getting darker. And like,
[08:43] you know, I was experiencing moments where it was difficult to get out of bed. It was difficult to,
[08:49] to cope with, like, how heavy a lot of the thoughts were. And,
[08:53] and so I think that once it took that turn, it was easy for me to tell, like, this isn't just baby blues, like, this isn't appropriate. Like, and thankfully I did have one friend at the time who is a social worker.
[09:05] And I gotta tell you, like, having friends in your corner that are trained and well equipped, whether that's a therapist or a social worker, like, you know, who could see the signs.
[09:15] And I remember walking into a lactation circle with her and being like, this is how I'm feeling. I'm feeling like sometimes I just,
[09:23] I don't know if I even want to live. She just stopped at in her tracks and held my hand and she's like,
[09:27] you know, you don't have to feel that way. Like, that's not an appropriate feeling. Like you deserve help, you deserve a break. And that was for me, like when I kind of started to take my mental health journey more seriously and, and then, yeah, sought the more like specific maternal mental health focused support of the UCLA team and what put me on an airplane and,
[09:53] and all of that.
[09:55] So sometimes it does take just telling one person that you feel like is equipped enough to handle your story and to really help you navigate that next step in your journey when you can't really see it yourself.
[10:10] Christi Gmyr: Yeah, no, I mean, it sounds like, I mean you were very fortunate
to have that friend. And to your point, I mean any support is going to be helpful, but it sounds like you felt especially fortunate that you had this one friend in particular who had that background and sort of knew,
[10:26] you know, what she was living for and was able to see that it was pain.
[10:31] Yeah.
[10:32] So that,
[10:33] so then was that the point or, you know, when was that sort of like the point where things started to shift in the sense that you realized something really needed to be different?
[10:46] Like, what made you decide to get on that one way slide with your baby? Like, what was going through your mind at the time when you made that decision?
[10:53] Georgia Stephens: Well, I think I knew that like I, I had wanted to be a mother more than anything in my entire life, really. Like, I've, I've always loved my work. I've, I've loved having the ability to like, do things that I'm passionate about,
[11:11] but I've, I wanted to be a mother to a child so deeply.
[11:16] And the fact that what was going on with my mental health and,
[11:20] and specifically because of my work and the nature of my work, like, it exacerbated things, like I couldn't hold both at the same time.
[11:28] And I,
[11:30] I kind of detached from my child emotionally. Right. Like, a big part of how it presented for me with my mental health was just feeling dissociated from a lot of the world around me, including my baby, which to me was like,
[11:43] that was my everything.
[11:45] And so in my mind I was like, well, a, I'm feeling these super dark thoughts that like, if I don't get help now, I don't know if I'm going to make it out of this.
[11:54] And, like,
[11:55] I want to be connected to my child more than anything in the world and I'm willing to do whatever it takes. And so I was willing to take, you know, the leap of faith of hopping on a plane by myself to go be evaluated at the UCLA maternal Mental Health Clinic to see if they could help me.
[12:13] And you know, I got there, I was fully anticipating coming back to El Paso and going to work the next day.
[12:23] But you know, they were like,
[12:25] you did the right thing. You're in the right place. And we, we highly encourage you to stay put.
[12:31] They put me in touch with some therapists that I could go see outpatient for a few days while they worked on getting me admitted. But I was admitted, you know,
[12:39] within a week or two and I filed for disability leave and really allowed myself to take the time that I needed in order to process and,
[12:51] and, and get better. And it was a, it was a journey for sure. But that's what I felt certain that that was what I needed to do because I was so desperate to have my life and my relationship with my baby back.
[13:05] Christi Gmyr: Yeah, no, absolutely. Well, and I imagine, you know, that there are, you know, for a lot of women who are struggling with this sorts of things,
[13:14] the idea of going into a maternal mental health program, especially if they're not familiar, especially if they don't know what to expect, can probably feel very scary. And so I'm wondering, like, what was it like for you going into that program?
[13:29] Like, was it what you expected? Do you mind telling us a little bit about,
[13:33] about that?
[13:34] Georgia Stephens: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, and I felt that way for sure. I was, I was scared of the unknown, but the, the,
[13:42] the level of scary that I was already experiencing on a day to day basis, I was like well, nothing can be scarier than what my. What my thoughts are and the reality that I feel like I live in.
[13:53] So even though I was really nervous to go in there, and it's also very scary to go and to tell what is essentially a stranger.
[14:06] Like, you're darkest, most terrifying thoughts, right? Like in that process of, of being evaluated and things like that.
[14:16] And I gotta tell you, like, it was. It wasn't always like the easiest thing.
[14:22] There were moments where I was worried about feeling judged. I was worried about having somebody think that I was a bad mom by disclosing these things that I was feeling.
[14:31] But the thing about going to a place where they are specifically trained to support families who are going through perinatal mental health crises is if they're doing their jobs right, which most of the time they are.
[14:46] Like, you're seen in that, you're held in that. And then what was waiting for me on the other side was so much community in that and knowing that I wasn't alone and knowing that nobody thought that I was a bad mother, they actually were reflecting to me my bravery for stepping up and putting myself in the care that I knew that I needed,
[15:05] that it helped me redefine myself as a mother and actually see myself in a. In a stronger light.
[15:12] And that's. That's what I needed. And I think that that's what those perinatal mental health programs can do for you, that not only are you going to be with professionals that can help you navigate these spaces and reflect back to you pieces of yourself that maybe you can't see in the moment,
[15:28] but you're also with peers. And I think that peer support was, for me, everything. Like, I'm still very close with one of the women who I met in that program.
[15:39] And our babies were so little and we were in such a dark space, but we got through it together. And we could see in each other's eyes that, like, oh, like, you see me.
[15:48] Like, you know what this feels like. And there's not really a substitute for that of, like, being able to sit next to other women who are going through something very similar, even if it's not exactly the same.
[16:00] There's camaraderie in that, and I think that that's extremely healing in and of itself. And so I would just say that that fear and that initial anxiety of like,
[16:09] getting over that hump, it's just so worth it to get to the other side, to feel that sense of safety and belonging,
[16:16] even in those moments of really,
[16:20] you know, scary darkness.
[16:22] It Gets better through that. So it's worth it.
[16:26] Christi Gmyr: Absolutely. Well, and you specifically, like, you had talked before about EMDR specifically, right? And you know, trauma recovery. And I know that that's. EMDR is something that a lot of people sort of talk about, but I know a lot of people also are not familiar.
[16:44] So do you mind just talking a little bit about, like, what EMDR is and like, how it helped you specifically?
[16:51] Georgia Stephens: Yeah, definitely. It is a tool that is exceptionally helpful for those of us who are recovering from PTSD because.
[17:03] And other people who have experienced this might be able to relate.
[17:07] Sometimes, like, just talking about your traumatic experiences in life can be very re. Triggering.
[17:13] And so then you're trying to get support, you're trying to process, you're trying to reframe certain things in your mind, but you get very dysregulated when you're using your voice to kind of like, recount the story.
[17:29] And to me, EMDR was a really helpful tool in that it uses bilateral stimulation to help your brain rewire the memories of those trauma. And I'm not going to be able to speak to this as eloquently as an EMDR practitioner might, but as the recipient of these therapies,
[17:49] I can say that it was life changing to be able to know that I could sit in a space.
[17:54] And while, you know, I had a trained practitioner guiding me through it,
[17:59] we would start with building resources. Right. So I wasn't ever going back into these memories without having internal resources of strength, of peace, of calm, of safety.
[18:12] So that when we got into the weeds and I could tell that my body would be getting activated just thinking about the memories,
[18:18] you know,
[18:19] I could have my guides come in and help me feel more supported in those moments. And so I never felt like I had to tell the whole story out loud.
[18:29] I could be prompted to enter into that space in my own mind,
[18:37] but it allowed me to be able to process things in a way that was a lot less daunting. And activating through that EMDR therapy, I just. I found it to be exceptionally helpful.
[18:50] Christi Gmyr: Yeah, yeah, no, absolutely.
[18:52] So as you were doing this, as you were going through this,
[18:56] were there any specific moments where you started to think, like, okay, maybe. Maybe this is going to get better? Like, maybe I am going to get through this. Maybe it is going to be okay?
[19:07] Georgia Stephens: Yes, for sure. I mean, it was. It was interesting to watch because I was in the.
[19:11] I was in the perinatal mental health program for about four months.
[19:14] And while we were in that program,
[19:17] it was primarily focused on the maternal mental health piece and then the EMDR piece was a separate trauma therapy that, you know, they kind of realized that my,
[19:27] my past traumas from childhood and things like that were really preventing my,
[19:32] my recovery in the maternal mental health space.
[19:35] And so getting to do both of those things in conjunction, like going to therapy was my full time job for,
[19:41] for about four months.
[19:43] And over time I could see that I was able to tolerate distressing emotions a little bit better. One of the frameworks that I learned at the time was, was my window of tolerance, right?
[19:54] And so like my window of tolerance for distressing thoughts and feelings was like very, very little.
[20:00] And over time, I could see how that window was opening and I had more and more breathing room.
[20:05] And in that breathing room,
[20:07] I could start to see moments where I was allowing in feelings of joy with my baby, even if it was just a few minutes of a day. Like,
I was so grateful for any of those moments where like, while she was get, while I was giving her a bath,
[20:20] like, I could, you know, I could respond to her giggle, right? Like, I started to have those basic emotions come back to me in a way that was so encouraging that that's when I could kind of tell, like, oh yeah, this is working.
[20:35] Like,
[20:36] these five minutes of joy that I'm experiencing are what's keeping me going. Even though it was really tough,
[20:43] but it was, yeah, it was very worth it.
[20:46] Christi Gmyr: Well, and I could tell, you know, obviously this podcast as we talked about, is audio only, but I can see you and I can just see like the smile and like the look of joy, like on your face as you are talking about this.
[20:58] You know, it sounds like that was,
[21:00] that was just sounds really amazing for you.
[21:04] So as you were,
[21:06] you know, so as you were again going through this,
[21:09] through this treatment,
[21:11] what were some of the things what, like tools, strategies, you know, those sorts of things that you felt like, were most helpful for you, especially,
[21:20] you know, while you were also navigating motherhood. And I know you were doing that on your own too.
[21:28] Georgia Stephens: Yes,
[21:29] well, I think that there is absolutely no substitute for community.
[21:33] That to me was the most important thing and I couldn't have done it. And yes, like a part of my, my journey with this is as I was recovering and, and going through it, like I went through a divorce.
[21:45] I,
[21:46] I was a single mother for a while and I had,
[21:50] I had to call in all my people, right? We called it kind of like circling the wagons,
[21:55] like old school Oregon trail covered prairie wagons of just like preventing threat from the outside by Grabbing your community and circling yourself with them. And so I had.
[22:08] I had friends in my life and I had my. My parents who were able to.
[22:15] To help me and really create that kind of cocoon that I needed in order to re. Emerge as a stronger version of myself.
[22:25] And so it's something that I. I now really encourage, like, families when I'm supporting them postpartum, I'm like, who are those people for you? Right. Like,
[22:35] I didn't have them all living with me in Los Angeles,
[22:38] but just knowing that they were a text message away or, you know, I downloaded the app Marco Polo and having that.
[22:45] Those, like, videos from my people, like,
[22:48] even on days when I wasn't feeling up to communicating, it was just nice to know that there were people out there thinking about me and cheering me on.
[22:57] And that, to me was like the most important tool in my toolkit, was just making sure that I allowed myself the access to those people in my life.
[23:07] Christi Gmyr: I mean. Wow. Yeah. No, and I.
[23:10] I mean, I'm so glad that you were able to,
[23:13] you know, to have such a positive experience. You know, obviously, I know it started with a real struggle, but the fact that you were able to get the support and you were able to lean on your community and you were able to come through it and sound like it ended up being,
[23:27] you know, such a.
[23:29] Like a.
[23:30] The community was just such a. Such a positive thing for you. I mean, and I really appreciate you just kind of taking the time to share your story. Like, as you were talking about earlier, this,
[23:39] this idea that when we can.
[23:43] You talking about.
[23:44] Right. Leaning on fears of having those supports and just knowing that other people are going through the same thing. And that is one of the things that I really want to sort of do for people who are listening.
[23:56] And so I know that story that's really going to be helpful for those people. So I really, really appreciate you talking about that and sharing that. Now I know before we really got started, you had been talking to me about how you've recently been making some shifts with what you've been doing.
[24:14] You before were doing, you know, focusing on the pod center, and now you were talking about a new thing, topless and integers. And I'm wondering if you can tell us a little bit about that.
[24:28] Georgia Stephens: Definitely. Yeah. And it's. It's interesting. I feel like being a mom and healing and also working and trying to, like,
[24:38] have parts of multiple parts of your brain firing at the same time.
[24:43] I feel like learning the art of a solid pivot is really important and, like, not Feeling like, shame or failure around that. And so I've been feeling recently that, and even today, like, getting to share some of my story with you and your listeners.
[25:01] I'm realizing that sharing my story is a really important part of how I want to pay it forward from the experiences that I've learned from. And,
[25:12] you know, I kind of talked about, like, that sense of isolation kind of right off the bat after I had my daughter.
[25:18] And I do think that, like, storytelling is a really great way to help people feel less alone. And so while in Los Angeles, I've been developing a community here where we were doing perinatal mental health support groups and.
[25:32] And things that I found to be really important. I had the. The huge gift of being able to do that for my community here kind of in person. But I.
[25:42] I'm thinking that I want to shift more into sharing my story outside of, you know, the walls of a brick and mortar. Right. And so I've started a platform called Topless and in Tears, where I'm kind of sharing bits of what this transformation has been for me since becoming a mother,
[26:02] because I've. I've spoken with so many women over the past year at the POD about how so. There's so many intersections, right? There's a lot of intersectionality. When you think about what.
[26:13] What happens to you when you become a mother,
[26:16] a lot changes. It's a huge transformation. And for me and for a lot of people, it also had to do with, like, getting back in touch with our bodies. And it actually brings up a lot of questions about sexuality and what does that mean for you?
[26:29] And so to me, it was like being postpartum and having, you know, bleeding nipples and not wanting to wear a top and crying because I was just, like, going through such a hard time.
[26:38] But then that juxtaposed with, like,
[26:41] you know, a few years later, as I was healing, really getting back into my body, understanding what it means to, like, fully allow my body to enjoy pleasure again, like,
[26:50] feeling tears of gratitude for that and being topless in a. Tears in that context. And so that's.
[26:57] That's why I chose that name to kind of represent the full spectrum of the storytelling that I want to start engaging it.
[27:05] Christi Gmyr: So I love the name.
[27:08] Georgia Stephens: Thank you. It's so good.
[27:10] Christi Gmyr: I just. I love it.
[27:12] So what do you think? That is something that we, as a society maybe need to do better when it comes to supporting these new mothers?
[27:21] Georgia Stephens: You know, I just. I feel like having more professionals who are trained specifically in perinatal mental health is huge. And like, this can be my plug for forever. For Postpartum Support Internationals Perinatal Mental Health certification.
[27:38] They have wonderful training programs for practitioners.
[27:41] Whether you're a doula like myself or you're an OB or you're a therapist. Like, having this specific training around perinatal mental health, I think is huge. And so funding for that,
[27:54] making sure that birthing families have access to resources no matter where they are in the country. Postpartum Support International is doing a lot of the heavy lifting in that and making sure that they have peer to peer support as well as like a really robust library of resources nationwide.
[28:17] However, I just, I think that individual practitioners who are knowing that they're working with perinatal populations, taking that upon themselves to seek extra training to be more curious to.
[28:30] I just really feel like that's something that is extremely important.
[28:35] And for those of us who are mothers and we're trying to balance a lot. And I just think that honesty is really important. Right. Like, hold space for all of it.
[28:46] Like, don't feel like you have to be perfect and always have this outward shining face of happiness and perfection. Because I do think that does do us a disservice as a whole.
[28:56] Like, we're so much more than just the happy moments. And we deserve to hold space for each other in all of it.
[29:04] Christi Gmyr: Yeah. And I will.
[29:06] I will echo what you have just said and really speak to Postpartum Support International and just how it's such a wonderful organization, such a great group. I've also been through their training probably about six or seven years ago as a therapist.
[29:22] And I know they also have just a lot of support for,
[29:26] not just for professionals, but for moms. You know, it's really a great organization. So I'm glad that you mentioned that. And hopefully people will have that in the back of their minds that they are looking for additional support.
[29:38] So then how do you think that loved ones to maybe better support someone who is going through what you went through?
[29:47] Georgia Stephens: That's a really good question. And, you know,
[29:49] I will answer that by sharing kind of what my family's experience was. And so I think that, you know, it was overwhelming for everybody when I was in that kind of like, really deep state of crisis.
[30:01] You know, most of us aren't equipped to know what to do in those moments. And so they sought out their own resources, they sought out their own therapist who was trained
in perinatal mental health.
[30:14] And they were like, what can we do? How can we support Georgia as she's going through this? And I'm just so forever grateful for that because,
[30:21] you know, they didn't put it on me to have to explain to them how I needed to be supported because at the time I couldn't have done that. Like, I was too busy in my own space.
[30:30] And so the fact that they took the initiative to go out and find their own support, there's, I know, I'm sure even through Postpartum Support International, there's, there's peer support groups for people who are supporting a loved one, going through it, right.
[30:42] Whether you're the non gestational parent or if you're the grandparent or if you're a friend, like just knowing that you have resources too as a support person and making sure that you're taking really good care of yourself because it is, it is a big job to be supporting somebody that's going through something like that.
[31:01] And you deserve to be well supported too.
[31:04] Christi Gmyr: Yeah, no, absolutely.
[31:07] So, I mean, this has just been so great. This has been so helpful. I'm so glad that you were willing to take your time out of your busy day to come and talk to me today.
[31:17] So people who want to, for the most listening, who want to learn more about you,
[31:22] more about the work that you are doing,
[31:25] where do they go to do that?
[31:27] Georgia Stephens: So right now I just direct them to Instagram. If they're on social media topless and in tears,
[31:34] I'm, I'm posting my story there. There's links to things that I'm doing with the POD and in Los Angeles and then, you know, folks can always direct message me there and reach out.
[31:45] And if you're not on social media, you can always email me at georgiapodfamilycenter.com and yeah, just know that I'm around. And I always love hearing from people at any stage of the process.
[32:00] It's interesting sometimes, you know, I would have moms come to my groups that were five weeks postpartum or like had 15 year olds. And it was just really interesting how at any stage of motherhood there's just always something to be said for being in a safe space and talking to somebody that you know who isn't going to judge you.
[32:17] And it's just there to listen and to help you feel less alone. So reach out.
[32:24] Christi Gmyr: Yeah, no, absolutely. So I will be sure to include that information in the show notes for anybody who wants to learn more about you or who wants to, you know, seek you out.
[32:38] So before we wrap up for today, if you could maybe give one final piece of advice to new moms who are struggling with postpartum,
[32:47] what would it be?
[32:49] Georgia Stephens: I'd first say that it is not forever. This. This will not last forever. And even if you're in those moments where you just truly can't see the light at the end of the tunnel,
[32:59] it. It exists and.
[33:02] And reach out, like, find one person, whether it's somebody that's physically there that you can hold their hand, or if it's, you know, listening to a podcast like this and hearing somebody's voice saying, hey, I've lived through this too, and so can you just know that you're not alone.
[33:19] And one of the things that was helpful for me was to kind of think about what was my.
[33:26] My inner fighter, right, like, to me, like, that was my child. And even if I couldn't feel the connection with her that I really wanted to, in that moment, I knew that that's what I wanted more than anything.
[33:35] And that that fire inside was what allowed me to keep taking steps forward, even when it was really hard.
[33:43] And so to kind of just like,
[33:45] take a moment and meditate maybe, like, on what that is for you and write it down somewhere. I, like, had it on a post it note on my bathroom mirror.
[33:53] And just whatever it takes to allow you to get through the day, you know, and to take it a day at a time. And it won't last forever.
[34:03] Yeah.
[34:04] Christi Gmyr: Won't last forever.
[34:06] Well, thank you again. Thank you again so much for being here. You know, I really, really appreciate it for the moms who are listening, you know, as always,
[34:15] any of this resonates. Found any of these things today to be helpful or valuable.
[34:20] You know, I encourage you to please share this podcast with other moms.
[34:25] There's so many out there who I know could really use additional support and could benefit from kinds of stories because.
[34:33] Georgia Stephens: You know, we are.
[34:34] Christi Gmyr: We are all in this together.
[34:38] Georgia Stephens: Yes, we are.
