Postpartum Depression Anonymous
If you are experiencing a mental health crisis and in need of urgent care, please call 911 or go directly to the nearest emergency room. PDA is not a replacement for professional help and care.
Mission Statement
Our mission is to offer a safe space to access inclusive support for all birthers, experiencing mental health challenges, through the perinatal period.
If you are a newcomer and want to learn more about PDA before deciding if it is right for you, please join a newcomer info session 15 minutes prior to the meeting start. We’d be happy to meet you and answer any questions you have. There’s no obligation to stay for the meeting.
For more information please contact us at info@pda-support.org
Want to learn more about us, how we began and what drives us?
PDA an Origin Story
Introduction to the 12 Steps of PDA
The 12 Steps are a tool for helping us realize the best versions of ourselves and guide us to actualize that version. When we actualize the best version of ourselves, we become better human beings, and that will naturally translate to all our relationships and life experiences. This is important in the postpartum period when we need to nourish ourselves. The 12 Steps of PDA are merely suggested. The program is something we choose to do, in our own time and in our own way. Each step prepares us for the next step. We can take as much time as we need with each step. There is no time limit or timeframe one needs to work through them. We’re mindful not to place expectations of hurry on ourselves.
Our collective has an optional workbook to aid us in working these steps. You can download your copy below with zero commitment to use it.
PDA Meeting script, brochures and all literature can be downloaded here
Check out our Literature page
physicians - counsellors - social workers - social services - midwifes - doulas - etcetera
Information for Care Providers
Preamble
Postpartum Depression Anonymous is dedicated to helping people through the time before and after birth, often described as the pre- and postpartum period. We do this by connecting and sharing with others in a peer to peer support setting. Our collective is based on the 12 Step peer support framework. The 12 Step program, in the context of our collective, is one of inclusion, secular serenity and neutrality.
The Logo
STORK is HEART: “Sharing truthful, organic, relatable knowledge is helpful, effective, anonymous, rewarding tranquillity.” In Short “KNOWLEDGE is TRANQUILLITY.”
Safe Space
Our collective welcomes all the emotions, anger, laughter and everything in between. Our meetings are a safe space for members to share in their own authentic ways, swears and all.
Inclusion
Postpartum Depression does not discriminate, so neither will our collective. We are all here because we currently or previously have experienced Postpartum Depression and/or mental health challenges in the perinatal period.
Gender has many forms, identities, names. Postpartum Depression Anonymous welcomes all birthers, from all walks of life, with all types of birthing experiences.
Disclaimer
If you are in need of urgent mental health care and/or are in crisis please call 911 or go to your local Emergency room. Only a health care professional can diagnose someone with depression. If you think you may be experiencing depression, it is important to speak with your health care professional about what you’re feeling. While peer support is an important, secondary tool for care during the perinatal period, it is not a replacement for safe and caring professional treatment. You deserve to get the help you need.
Thank you for visiting.
We hope to greet you at a meeting whenever you are ready.
In your own time and in your own way, we are here for you always.
Postpartum Depression Anonymous
© All contents are copyright of Postpartum Depression Anonymous. Reproduction of this literature, without written consent, is prohibited. The literature and their cover and Logo’s in their entirety and separate are the sole property of Postpartum Depression Anonymous as a whole. Postpartum Depression Anonymous is an adapted 12 Step program. Please see AA.org for more information on the origins.
The Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous have been reprinted and adapted with the permission of Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. (“A.A.W.S.”). Permission to reprint and adapt the Twelve Steps does not mean that Alcoholics Anonymous is affiliated with this program. A.A. is a program of recovery from alcoholism only - use of A.A.’s Steps or an adapted version in connection with programs and activities which are patterned after A.A., but which address other problems, or use in any other non-A.A. context, does not imply otherwise.
