Postpartum Depression Anonymous
The Twelves of PDA
What are the Twelves of PDA?
The Twelve Steps of Postpartum Depression Anonymous.
The Twelve Health and Safety Traditions of Postpartum Depression Anonymous.
The Twelve Intervention and Crisis Traditions of Postpartum Depression Anonymous.
Why do we have them?
To ensure members are hearing the same message no matter where or how they are attending a meeting.
So that we are all working together, in a common way, to regain and maintain our mental well being.
To have consistent unity throughout the collective as a whole and as individual groups.
To have consistent procedures for service structures, crisis and intervention and policies.
What is the importance of having them?
Having them helps us create a safe and consistent space for members attending.
They keep diversion from the PDA Collectives primary purpose, helping birthers of all demographics regain and maintain their mental well being.
They prevent misunderstandings.
They create common ground.
They protect the foundation of PDA.
They inform us on how to solve problems, welcome diversity, and manage crisis situations within PDA.
They maintain the integrity of the program.
What is the value they add?
They help the spread and scalability of the PDA collective.
They give people the confidence to start their own groups and regions.
They provide structure, guidance and routine to the PDA collective as a whole.
The 12 Steps of Postpartum Depression Anonymous
Purpose:
An optional tool we use to help us regain and maintain our mental wellbeing, encourage personal growth and guide us in our PDA journeys.
The 12 Steps of PDA
We admit our lives have become unmanageable and we are feeling powerless over our mental wellbeing.
We are beginning to believe that it is possible to restore our personal peace of mind.
We are making a decision to turn our current experience over to a power outside of ourselves.
We are making a commitment to see ourselves honestly, compassionately and without self-criticism.
We admit to ourselves, a power outside of ourselves and to another human the commonalities in our positive and negative patterns.
We ARE WILLING to release the negative to a power outside of ourselves and amplify the positive.
We WILL ACTIVELY release the negative to a power outside of ourselves and amplify the positive.
We will make a list of people we believe we need to make amends or gratitude offerings to and be willing to make them.
We will make amends or gratitude offerings to such people, except when doing so would cause harm to ourselves or others.
We will continue to search within ourselves daily and when negative, correct it, and when positive, give gratitude.
Through the support of our peers, tools of the program, self-reflection, the act of letting go, and including ourselves in our boundaries, we continue to improve our lives.
Having a conscious personal awakening as a result of these steps, we practice these principles in all our interactions.
The Twelve Health and Safety Traditions of Postpartum Depression Anonymous.
It is with utmost respect and importance that we adhere to these Traditions of the PDA Collective.
Purpose:
A tool for creating a safe and inclusive space.
A set of structured rules to follow no matter where or when you attend a meeting to keep our collective unified, from the group to the world level.
The 12 HST of PDA
To keep our PDA meetings healthy and safe, to serve our members in a meaningful way and protect the unity of our collective we follow these twelve Traditions.
The health, safety and unity of PDA and its members comes first. Therefore we leave our religion, politics, titles and opinions on outside issues at the door and do not discuss them at our meetings.
For all intents and purposes there is no one authority. We make decisions based on group consensus. We do not govern.
The PDA collective does not discriminate; our only requirement for attendance is lived and/or living experience with mental health challenges for birthers in the pre- and postpartum period. This includes, but is not limited to, all birthers from all walks of life, with all types of pregnancy experiences, gender identities and expressions of love.
Each group will be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups and Postpartum Depression Anonymous as a whole.
PDA has one purpose; to help birthing people restore and maintain their mental well being. We do this by practicing the 12 steps of our collective, comforting and encouraging each other on our journeys.
PDA groups and/or individual members will not endorse, finance or lend our name to outside enterprises for personal gain. Our public relations policy is based on attraction and promotion. It must always protect the personal anonymity of our members.
Mutual respect is part of the PDA foundation. Therefore PDA does not tolerate any expressions of bigotry, racism, transphobia, anti-semitism, or other prejudicial behaviour.
We allow members time to share, uninterrupted. We do not cross talk, including using in-app chats. We do not give advice, we merely share how we may have solved similar problems.
Anonymity is held in the highest regard. We hold in confidence what is expressed in the meetings and do not repeat what others share with us. We practice principles above personalities.
Individual groups will be self-supporting, thriving on donations from their members, but have the autonomy to apply for grants applicable to their needs. Postpartum Depression Anonymous as a whole will never take loans from banks or credit card companies.
Postpartum Depression Anonymous should remain forever non-professional, but our service centers may employ special workers. If useful and applicable, available grants may be applied for to support the operations of PDA as a whole.
Postpartum Depression Anonymous groups should be well organized, create special service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve and these positions and committees will be transparent and open to any member who wishes to join or observe.
The Twelve Intervention and Crisis Traditions of Postpartum Depression Anonymous
It is with utmost respect and importance that we adhere to these Traditions of the PDA Collective.
Purpose:
These are a mandatory set of structured rules to follow that maintain anonymity of our members;
They protect the safety of our members and their loved ones in the event we become alarmed by an interaction within the meetings;
To foster harm reduction;
To prevent a crisis;
To intervene in a healthy, compassionate and meaningful way.
To ensure respect for self advocacy.
The 12 ICT of PDA
To keep our members, and when applicable, their children and families safe, we follow these Twelve Intervention and Crisis Traditions. No one member has the authority to take action and all must adhere to these traditions. Membership of the group may be revoked as a result of not following these processes.
Compassion, empathy, kindness, love and transparency are and will always be the guiding force of these traditions.
If a situation arises where any member(s) of the group becomes extremely concerned with the personal wellbeing of a member and/or their family, or identifies a severe crisis, the concern will be privately expressed to the host of the meeting as soon as possible.
It is the host and the concerned member’s responsibility to reach out to the person of concern. Together they will work towards resolution.
If the member of concern is unable to accept the concerns of the host and member, and/or a resolution can not be identified, the issue will be presented to the group as a whole with compassion, empathy, kindness, love and transparency.
It is the duty of the group to have transparent discussion, while still following no cross talk and no discrimination.
After discussion is had, the group will decide together, by way of consensus decision making, if further steps and/or actions need to be taken.
The group will come up with an action plan. If the member in question is not part of this discussion, the action plan will be made known to them prior to action.
The group will allow the member of concern agency and self advocacy if they feel the action will further harm them. It is important to understand why and alter the action plan if necessary.
No matter the instance or action plan, the anonymity of the members' shares will be respected. This includes when needing to report to an agency outside of the PDA collective. The agency does not need to know why a report is being made, they just need to know what to do.
If reporting to an agency outside of the PDA collective, a wellness check will be requested for the member.
A single point of contact and responsibility to report will be defined by the group. Reporting must be anonymous to protect the anonymity of the collective and its members.
Be very aware and evaluate all avenues for support before coming to a decision. Extra support from the members might be the best thing, but always bear in mind we are not a replacement for professional help and care.
