Make Mental Health Matter with Kelli Melissa Reinhardt: From Studio Secrets to Sacred Stories of Motherhood

0:00What if you had the resources you needed for your mental health, write at your fingertips. Imagine a world where our mental well-being is prioritized, just like our physical health, and where we have access to the tools and support we need. That's exactly what the Make Mental Health Matter Show is all about. In Kelly Melissa Reinhart, a true warrior for mental health, founder of Make Mental Health Matter Nonprofit, author and wellness coach, this show is your gateway to breaking down the stigma surrounding mental health, tune in for enlightening conversations, expert insights, and empowering stories that will not only increase awareness, but also provide education about mental health. It's time to have those hard conversations, prioritize your well-being, and make your mental health matter. Your mental wellness journey starts here.

1:22Welcome to another episode of The Make Mental Health Matter Show. I am your host Kelly Melissa Reinhart, and I am excited for today. I'm going to put my stuff on, do not disturb, so I don't have anything popping up while I'm talking. Because that always happens on that, I look down and I'm like, ah, so many notifications. That is not what we're talking about today, but it just popped up in my head as some notification works popping in as I was watching the intro. So I'm curious, those of you that have watched or listened to The Make Mental Health Matter Show. If you haven't been listening on Dream Vision 7 Radio, and you've been watching on E360 TV or the YouTube channel, what do you think about the new intro? It's a new old intro. It is new because now it has visuals to it. But it is old, I guess you could say, if you listen on Dream Vision 7 Radio,

2:29those of you that are listening are like, I have no idea what you're even talking about because I hear this every single time. But those of you that have been watching, so I might tell you a little bit of the backside of the show in general. So we go to TV, which is on E360 TV. It also goes out to Roku, Apple, Fire, Amazon. A whole bunch of different channels beyond just E360 TV. And then it also goes to Radio, which is Dream Vision 7 Radio. And then from there, that is syndicated to, I want to say it's like 56 other channels, something of that nature across the globe. But on Dream Vision 7 Radio, you can only listen. You can go to the page and it will link you to, I think, our YouTube channel. Or if you are somebody that watches on the YouTube

3:29channel, you may have noticed also that there's new intro. So, oh, and there's one other way you can watch it via the Make Mental Health Matter Show Facebook page. I don't know how many people actually watch there. But I put it out there, you know, for consistency. Gotta be consistent in this biz. But it goes to so many different channels, so it all depends on where you watch or maybe you're listening. And that's what I'm saying. It is a new intro for those of you that just have watched. So if you watch on E360 TV, one of the other streaming services or you're watching on YouTube or the Facebook page, what do you think? Let me know. And those of you that listen, go to the Make Mental Health Matter YouTube channel and watch with the, excuse me, watch the visuals of the intro,

4:31because it's totally different. In the past, I've had two different intros. I never sink them together, which I don't know why. But the one on Dream Vision 7 Radio, I'm like, I gotta get my brain trait, was professionally done by a professional voiceover person. The music, all of that was put together. And then on the E360 TV, that was one that I had put together myself. And yeah, anyways. So now they're all one. Like you see the same or hear the same thing on either channel. How cool is that? You know, only like what I've been doing this show since 2021. And I've probably changed my intro about four or five times. It's been consistent on Dream Vision 7 Radio though. So those of you listening, you're like, yep, it's the same. It's great. It's fine. Cool lady go on. You'll also

5:37notice as we go, which I've been saying for a while, and have been promising that I was going to change up the commercials. I changed up one of them so far. It is a commercial that was professionally done through Dream Vision 7 Radio, but now it has visuals to it. I haven't decided if I like the visuals yet. I think they're pretty good, but you'll have to see. I may play around with that one too. That's the cool part about being the creator of the show, also having a tech background, and kind of knowing what I'm doing, what through production, but also knowing how to use technology and templates, and making it our own, the commercial I will admit. I use the template, but I think it fit pretty well. I changed some things around, but I think I'll probably end up playing with that. I just wanted to throw it in this time. It'll be on our first sponsored break. You can see what

6:39you think about it. If you're like, that's lame, Kelly. That's so generic. Let me know, drop a comment. Tell me about it. I like to make you happy while you're watching, because maybe it doesn't make sense, or maybe it does, but the audio portion of it is the part that was already done, and then I had to add pictures to it. Commercials are fun. Being able to have sponsored breaks is fun. I actually went on a show. I don't even know. It was last month, maybe, but her commercials are amazing. Oh my gosh. Every single sponsored break, there's an intention behind each of those, which is so cool. Her name is Tamara, and she's part of the fabulous five. It is another show here on E360 TV, depending on where you're watching or listening, but on the E360 TV. They have the purple heart

7:47club. Purple art? Is it purple or green? Purple art? I think maybe because I was like, we should do green for mental health, the green heart club, but she has like the heart club where anybody that's watching, they do all of their shows live. So anybody's watching, they put in their green hearts while they're watching it. And of course, you have to connect it into Facebook to be able to see those things, and yeah, there's a lot of tech behind that. I am one person, and they have a whole squad that helps, but they have every single break is intentional. There's what I'm trying to get out, and it's just really cool. There's like music videos. There is which they had the music created for them. I have had, like I said, I had these professionally recorded. I got to pick the music. I picked the verbiage, and then I got to pick the actual voice for it. The voice of her person, which was

8:50so cool when I joined Dream Vision 7 Radio, and same with the intro and the outro. I just never mesh them together, which is fascinating. I always, well, not that I always, but on E360 TV, I just had something different because I started there instead of YouTube, which was where I really, really started, and I had zero idea what I was doing at that point. I was like, uh, an intro, an outro. What are you talking about? I just went live and figured... How do I do that? So figured that out. Not the best. Actually, I might have to go back and watch some of those and see what I even had. I can't even remember. But I do know, I mean, I started my now right away with guests, which was super fun. People in my network that I was like me, and

9:52somebody needs to hear your story. Like, you have such an amazing story about why you do what you do as related to your mental health and all the things, and that's what I wanted to do. I just wanted to have guests and bring their stories and have them share information with you as the audience. One of the really cool things, and I'm going to share this now. So our most recent stats, we are... I didn't tell you it fully, but the most recent stats were well over. So it's about, if I do the quick math-ish in my head, we're like 170,000 people, and we were number one. Number one, listen to Andre Vision 7 Radio, which was so, so cool. I'm not going to have to find that email because now I'm like, I better be saying the right information. I know that it was number one,

10:56which is super, super cool. Yeah, so, well, let's see, so one, 30, 40, so about 150,000, sorry, I added a little too many. Well, no, so we have about 11,610 people that tune in on the Dream Vision 7 Radio side, and then we have about 35, well, of the last ones that I saw, which was like two months ago. So we probably have around like 37,000 that watch on E360 TV, so math is hard, but yeah, that's like $150,000. We were in the top 10 downloads on Dream Vision 7 Radio, and the show was number one, and listen, listen, shirt, lip, lip, lip. Yep, I can't talk today. Listen, listen, or ship, listen, or ship. Listen, or ship, that's hard word. For February,

11:579th, whatever February 9th is, I don't know what show I did. Most of the times I do the show, and I have no idea what I do. So thank you, whatever it was. Thank you for tuning in, thank you for watching. I have not been number one, which is amazing, and continue to hope to be, and if I can make this better for you as the listener, or as the watcher, please let me know, drop me comments. You can go again to our YouTube channel. You can go to the Make Mental Health Matter show, YouTube, or Instagram page, drop a comment on any of those page. You can send me an email. It's showatmakementalhealthmatter.org, or go to the website, which I share with you all the time, which is mmhm.org, and go to the tab that talks about the show, the podcast, the show, and you can find me there. You can also find all the other channels that we go out to. So,

13:00let me know what is valuable for you. Like, what do you really want to hear about? What do you want me to talk about? I don't have as many guests as I have in the past, which is totally fine. I've been really, really busy, and having my schedule open to have people come and record has been challenging. So, I like to do these solo shows. Hopefully you appreciate them too. So today is another solo show, and that was a big introduction for like multiple minutes, but if you want a little backside of even like the big topics right now, or like, how do I start a podcast? How do I do a show? How are all these people like getting number one? How are they getting awards? Like, um, a lot of questions. I get a ton of those questions, and I'm so transparent. I don't know everything. I don't know the algorithms. I don't like, I look at the data, but I'm not like a data nerd. Um, I love the stats. I love knowing that people are watching or listening.

14:01I have used multiple different platforms as far as getting this out. Um, we mainly run it through e360 TV as they give us the platform, which is included in having the show on this network. Um, and so that's really, really cool. So stream yard was a first where I first started. I heard about that, um, through another host, and then we went to wave, which, nah, I didn't really, it was okay. There were some cool fancy stuff that stream yard didn't have. Then stream yard started adding some of these cool features, but, um, there was really cool, but I had like a giant problem with getting it out. And then there was one episode. So, Gen B, I had her on the first time, and it recorded somebody else's show on top of my show. So fascinating. They could not figure out. They're like, you probably literally hit record at the same exact time as this person. And I

15:03was like, well, good thing that show was recorded and not live. Like, how weird would that be? Um, and it was weird that it even happened. And I was like, what is wrong with this technology? Okay, so that's my, my story. Maybe they've updated some things. Maybe they haven't. Uh, now we use EV Mucks. So it's EV MUX. Um, I've also had some friends that use Riverside. There's lots and lots of platforms out there. And ultimately the platform helps you record like I am right now. And then it helps you get it out to all those channels. So, um, little backside of podcasts. I didn't even know this is where I was going to go today. This is why I love my show because the universe, I just like, this is what people want. Maybe, maybe, this is maybe what people want to hear today. Um, but if you have any questions, again, I'm like super open, um, train's parent. I can tell you what I probably did wrong and what I feel like I have done right. And what I've learned from

16:07other hosts, uh, I have a giant network of other hosts on the E 360 TV that we do lots of, um, we do monthly powwow's like get together. Uh, I can reach out to anybody on my channel, anybody outside of the channels. And everybody's just so helpful, which is so awesome. And it's cool to be a part of a network that has such great people. So shout out to you E 360 TV, uh, hosts and the E 360 TV team. Um, thank you so much dream vision seven radio is just as amazing. Um, they're so, so they've been around a lot longer. Um, and the energy is just so wonderful with dream vision seven radio. There are amazing hosts over there too that are super helpful if you ever have questions. Um, I've been on a couple of the shows over there too. And, um, Debra,

17:07who is the, uh, the founder of dream vision seven radio is just like an amazing light of energy. So, um, it's really cool how I ended up on both of these platforms and having the show there, like having it live in an evergreen platform on both sides and knowing the stats and getting those monthly and yeah, and there's a lot behind it. Yes, I get it. But like if you want to do it, right? I suck at loading things with a podcast platform. That's like a whole another animal. Um, there's lots and lots of platforms just for podcasts specifically. I suck at loading my show onto those as some of you probably have found if you're like, where can I find it? Where can I listen? And then I'm like, they're like, do you have it on the podcast platforms? And I'm like, uh, no, because I'm horrible at putting them on there. Um, I just need like a day where I can like go upload and fill in all the info. I've got it all. Uh, I just am horrible at doing that. So,

18:12I'm sorry. I am, but I'm not on the podcast specific platforms. Um, but it goes out to way other more way, other more that is not a great sentence. Um, but it goes out to way more other channels on TV and radio. So there you go. Um, a little lesson in podcast TV shows, radio shows, whatever you want to call it. Uh, and my final message to you on this specific topic is if you have questions, feel free to drop comments. I am more than happy to answer if I don't know the answer because again, I don't know everything. I will ask for you. Um, so don't feel like you can't ask a question. If I don't know, I'll go ask some other show host and I bet you they probably know more than I do. And if they don't know, they probably know somebody that knows somebody, you know, I'm sure you get what I'm saying. So, um, if you've always wanted to do it, don't guess it. Don't second guess it,

19:16just do it. It's pretty cool. It's pretty fun. Even if you have no idea what the heck you're going to talk about or you're like, oh my gosh, I have to get all of this prepped. No. I didn't even get anything prepped. I barely even had a logo. I used my, I used my old, um, non-profit logo when I first started. I didn't have any, like, channeler. I didn't have any thumbnails. I didn't have anything. I was just like, I'm about try stream yard and I'm gonna go live because I got challenged and it seems like it's a way that I do things now. So, do it. If you've been wanting to, it's so fun. Like, maybe this is your piece of healing. Maybe this is your piece of like getting your voice out there. Maybe this is a piece of getting comfortable on video, getting comfortable on using your voice, getting comfortable on promoting other people, promoting your services, promoting

20:19whatever it is that you want to talk about. Like, there are legitimate more podcasts in this world that you can possibly imagine. And I almost guarantee you most people who start don't get the views, don't get the listens, right? Like, I got maybe a handful here and there for about a year. And then when I really started shifting into not things that matter because I think we started off talking about things that matter, but it's really reaching those audiences that want the information, right? I don't even know if you want this information, but it's helpful. And I bet there is somebody that is listening that's like, oh man, I wish somebody else would talk about this. So, I don't know, maybe I'll find an expert, like a podcast expert. Oh, I know somebody actually, I just thought of them. And that's what they do. Hopefully they still can come on to shows to talk about it. But maybe they want to come back and talk about, if that's something that would be interesting,

21:22leave me a comment. Let me know. Tell me, yes, please Kelly, bring experts. Or if there's any other fields, there are other things related to mental health stories. I don't know, whatever you tell me, what do you want to hear about? What guess would you like me to search out and bring on? So, with that said, I'm going to go to my first quick sponsored break. This is the one that is newer-ish. So, listen in, tell me what you think. I'll be right back after this quick sponsor break. What if you could transform your mental health journey with just one question? Have you ever wondered what it would be like to prioritize your mental well-being like never before? Well, now's your chance. Introducing Make Mental Health Matter, the show that's changing the conversation about mental wellness. Join us every Monday on Dream Vision 7 Radio Network at 7am

22:30and 7pm Eastern time as we delve into insightful discussions, expert advice, and inspiring stories posted by Kelly Melissa Reinhardt, a warrior for mental health. This show is your guide to breaking down the stigma surrounding mental health and discovering valuable resources to enhance your well-being. So, are you ready to take charge of your mental health journey? tune in and let's make mental health matter together. And like that, I'm back. It was a quick one. What did you think? Let me know. I don't know about the visuals. So, those of you that were watching, you're like, I have no idea which was talking or those of you that were listening or like, I have no idea, but I've heard that before on Dream Vision 7 Radio. Those of you watching, what do you think about the visuals? I'll probably play around with it a little bit more just so that it's a little more customized. That was

23:31that was the first go at doing the commercial. So, the cool part, I want to tell you, and I know I've said this before, but I want to say it again, if you want a sponsored spot, you can sponsor this show. I have packages that give you airtime, that give you the ability to put your commercial onto the show and reach the 150,000 people that watch or listen. That's pretty good. If you think about one show on TV or radio, if you think about doing commercials even on public TV, you're going to spend millions of dollars just putting commercial on regular daytime TV. Whereas this one, it's consistent every single week, one time per week, but anyways, reach out, go to mnhm.org and it's forward slash show. The words, I'm going to drop the links going to scroll down

24:41here. So, mnhm.org forward slash show, you can reach out to me, we can have a conversation, you can ask me, what are those packages look like? How can I get my business advertised on your show? You know what's also cool? Some of the other hosts, I'm all talking about all the other hosts. They do product spots, so maybe you have a really cool cup that you want me to drink out of. On everything single show, you know, we can put your logo in certain spots on the cup and I'll be like, so this sponsored break, this is sponsored by a product, a product spot, or maybe you have some artwork that you want me to replace this screen with. Yeah, I'm full of ideas. So, reach out. All right, that's not what I want to talk about today though. What I really, really want to talk

25:44about today, because I did, well, so I was listening in on a forum for maternal mental health. And I think this is a conversation that we don't have often enough in society today. I know that I have had several guests in the past that we have talked about moms. We've talked about babies. We've talked about mental health for moms. We've also talked about kids. We've talked about parenting. But I think that there's so much with maternal mental health. And I think the one thing that stuck out to me the most and I'm going to see if I can get my hands on this film that is all about maternal mental health. It was like, I start crying. I'm getting ready in the morning. I'm like about to put on my makeup and I start crying because it triggered within me. I had a pretty

26:53okay-ish pregnancy with my son. My daughter was even easier like, well, okay, I guess it wasn't easier. But when I had my daughter, I was 16 years old. And so that's pretty young. Like, I got pregnant when I was 15. I had my daughter when I was 16. I went through that pregnancy by myself. The her father ended up moving. We're now good friends. But he ended up moving to Thailand with his parents. And so I went through that pregnancy myself. It was interesting. I actually was so set on having an abortion. I did not. Obviously, I just said my daughter. But I was like, I'm too young. I can't do this. And then I went in the office to get that to get an abortion. And I was like, no, I was like, I was in the office. I was so set on that because I was so young. And I was in

27:59that office. And I was like, I can't do this. So my mom goes out of the room. They're getting me prepped. They gave me some pain medication. They're going to start getting me prepped. And I sat there and I was like, I can't do this. And I was like, can you go get my mom? And my mom came back in. And I was like, I can't do this. And she's like, are you sure? And I was like, yeah. And she's like, all right, well, you have to stay in school. And I was like, I know mom. Like that was my reaction. You see my face. I was like, I know my mom as a teacher. She's like, well, you have to stay in school. And I was like, so that was kind of my reaction at the time when I was 16 years old. Well, yeah, I was, well, I was probably nope. I was 16 at that time. But I was also born and raised Mormon. My dad and that whole family was in Utah. Like I had so many emotions around, oh my god, I can't tell my dad. Like he's going to tell the whole family. And then nobody's going to love me.

29:03And like I had all of these cycles through my head. My grandparents had he told if he told my grandpa and grandma who are very Mormon, I was like, oh my gosh, I'm going to be shunned. Everybody's going to hate me. And I'm already the black sheep of the family. Yeah, it was, it was rough. So then I told my dad and he was like, oh, okay. Well, trying to process everything. And at that point, I actually had decided that adoption was the best option. And I don't know why, but I had watched my sister. She had my nephew when she was 17, 18. And I watched her throughout her life, try to be a kid while raising a kid. And it just didn't feel like it worked. And I knew for whatever reason that I wanted to do adoption. And we found a family. I wanted her to have a sibling. And we found a family that they were ready to adopt. And then all of a sudden they didn't

30:03want to anymore because they didn't want to deal with a 16 year old assuming that they probably thought I was going to go back on wanting the adoption, which is fine, whatever. But I know that that was just kind of tough, right? So one of the cool parts is we got connected into this adoption agency, which is actually still around today in Colorado, which is so cool. It actually is a organization that I just did an event with last year. So how cool is that? Like full circle just gave me chills when I said that. But full circle, I didn't an event with them at the South Metro Chamber last year. So they're called adoption options. And it was just so cool. I was like, wait, your organization sounds really, really familiar. And then as I was talking to her, I was like, oh my gosh, like I went through your organization 28 years ago, which is so crazy.

31:06So anyways, full circle moment at that moment. And so I was able to pick a family out of a book. Like I'm reading through these stories of these families. I was really looking for one that had had another sibling, but I ultimately landed on probably the most amazing people I've ever met in my lifetime. But I mainly picked them because the mom was a dance therapist. Dad was a journalist and they had been trying for years to have a baby and they couldn't. And they were older. They were an older, say older couple. I think they were in their 40s or going into their 40s at that time, something math is not. Yeah. Anyways, well, that would be yeah, 40s like mid to late 40s. I feel like anyways, because they are almost as old as my parents,

32:12which is fascinating also, fascinating my word lately. But so I picked this family and they were amazing. And all of it was really great. I went into labor. I had a popsicle. I got a I got a what are they called? Yep, that one. They help, you know, so the pain's gone. Yeah, somebody words hard for me right now. But so I was good. It was great. It was fine. I actually got really weak. So they ended up having to use called a vacuum, which stuck on the head and then four steps. Um, and I guess it didn't like body wise. It didn't fill that traumatic. But I was so young. Anyways, there's that. Um, fast forward. I had my son 18 years later because I was like, I'm not doing it right or I'm not. Well, that's an oxymoron. Um, I'm not doing it wrong. I didn't want to do it

33:20wrong again. And I didn't want to be that like 16 and pregnant again and again and again. You have seen the show I'm sure it was not around when I had my baby too bad because I don't know, maybe I'd be rich now. Um, but I probably also have like five other kids and that's not cool either. So 16 and pregnant. You're fine. You're fine. Um, I was and they didn't have that show back in the day. Um, fast forward. I was like, I want another kid and I didn't want to do it wrong. I wanted to get married. Well, that marriage was a big fail. Epic, epic, fail. But I got a really amazing kid out of it. Um, so that one, yep, got married after a month of meeting this dude. Why? I don't know. My as well, right? It's like one of those dares. Why not? Sure, try it. Doesn't work out.

34:22Um, but he wanted to have another kid. This would have been this was his what one two three four three four one two three four fourth. Um, I was like, no, we just got married. No. And then I was like, uh, okay, whatever. Um, got pregnant and then found out I was pregnant two weeks later found out you're cheating on me. So that's cool. I was like, get the f out of my life. Uh, I'm doing this again by myself. Here we go. Yay. Um, but not but and that birth was pretty traumatic for me because my blood pressure was starting to elevate. And so we went to the hospital. By that time, I was already seven centimeters. Um, and they were like, epidural. That's the name of it. Ha, I had an epidural with the first kid. Um, but they were like, you either have to sit up to get

35:26the epidural or we're having a baby. And I was like, I can't even move. It hurt so bad. Like, I was in so much pain. Like, I couldn't move. And they were like, okay, the doctor's like, well, we're having a baby. And I was like, uh, no drugs. What are you talking about? I want an epidural. I want an epidural. And she's like, no, you're already too far along. You can't like, we're just going to, I'm going to, I'm going to break your water and we're going to have a baby. And I was like, oh my gosh, this is happening. Like freaking out. Uh, come to find out. My kid was sunny side up. Uh, so he was turned the wrong way. And that's why I was in so much pain. Nobody realized till he started coming out. And they're like, oh, that's why she had back labor. Oh, that's why she was in so much pain. Oh, come on, people. You didn't figure this out before. I could have sat up or like went, I know this now because my sister, my old, my eldest sister is an IBCLC. So she's been on the show before. And she told me this information because she

36:31didn't fly in in time. My middle sister, Carrie, who passed, uh, she drove me to the hospital. And, she didn't realize either. Like nobody realized the doctor didn't realize she didn't realize I had a doula and she didn't realize. Um, and so nobody was really realizing that I was having back labor because my child was facing the wrong way. Um, and basically like hitting my tailbone as he's coming out with the back of his head because this is the soft part of the baby said that's why they go out with their faces down so that they go through the birth canal. I wish I had a diagram, but I don't have one. But they go through because this is the soft part of their head, right? Well, this is already structurally sound because they have their, um, their vertebrae, their spine. It's called a spine.

37:31Um, so they come out this way versus face up and when they're face up, then they're the back of their head, hit your tailbone and it is painful, especially without drugs. So, um, I'm gonna give you or leave you with that visual for one moment to go to this quick sponsor break and I'll be right back after this. Have you ever felt completely alone? Like your life doesn't matter. One person dies due to suicide every 40 seconds. You are not alone. Call the National Suicide Lifeline at 988. Hope and recovery is possible. One in eight, people globally live with a mental disorder. That's why empowering minds saves lives. We need your help. With only $19 a month, you help us save lives through mental health and suicide prevention

38:35education. Scan the QR code or go to makementalhealthmatter.org to sign up as a warrior for mental health today. And like that, I'm back. If you happen to be just tuning in to the Make Mental Health Matter Show, thank you so much for tuning in, watching or listening and I don't know why I keep having more people in here than there is. It's very fascinating. All right, and I don't know how to take them out either. I'll figure that out while we're chatting. So, I just left you if you were listening before a little bit of a visual of, you know, when we have babies and when we as women, I don't know what's going on with this. It's kind of annoying.

39:40So, babies need to come out a certain way so that they don't hurt us. Yep. And I'm talking about like when I had my kid, it was not the funnest. So, now I'm going to come back see, ooh, hey, I just made her it out. So, anyways, they have to come out a certain way. Otherwise, they are, it's going to be really painful. So, I left you with that visual right before I went to the quick sponsor break. So, you're welcome. If you didn't listen or you were watching, go back and listen. I don't know, maybe, maybe if it's helpful. Anyways, so that was pretty traumatic because one, it hurt really bad. Two, I was like, I didn't have any drugs. And three, I was like, oh my gosh, I'm having this baby by myself again.

40:42And yeah, it's just one of those things that like we do what we have to do in those moments because we're the mom. And that's what we do. And people don't really give you options, right? Like you don't know maybe, you don't know what your options are. Maybe you are just listening to others and you're like, this is what I have to do. This is why I have to do this. And I think that ties into a lot of like the the maternal mental health that I'm talking about. And I will say like, so when my son first came out, they like set him on my chest, which when they did that with my daughter, I was just like, like, it was like the best thing in the whole entire world that I was like, oh my gosh, this little tiny thing like came out of me. And I just felt like super bonded and like amazing. And I was like, oh my gosh, this has been an experience that I never thought I would ever be a part of. And then with my son, I was like, okay, that's great. Can you give me drugs now?

41:43Like that was my initial thought because I was in so much pain at that point that I was like, I can't even enjoy this moment right now. But I think we don't consider that like as moms, as humans, as these experiences that we go through and it's not something that we talk about, we don't like, yes, as moms, we share these experiences. And as a mom, I joke around with my kid, I was like, you're never going to live this, live this up. And I'm going to tell you this story your whole entire life, right? But like, am I traumatizing my kid by telling him that information? I might be, I might also be retraumatizing myself every time I say that, huh, you know, something to think about. But these experiences

42:44as mother, right? Like as a mother, we see it in the public's eye or we going back to talking about that forum that I was on in the very first video that I saw, it's these moms talking about their experience with having children. And it wasn't like the first time or the second time, right? Like, there's different, very different experiences at every single kid that you have. And no matter how far apart your kids are, right? Like even if they are a year apart or they're 18 years apart, like my kids are, you have very different experiences. And it's this film showcase that. And it even showed like back in the day that when, um, husbands went to work and moms did all the things in the house. And you see these images, poor trade on TV. And in the, in the public that you

43:52are this prim and proper woman who is taking care of the house, you're doing the laundry, you're helping the kids and you're always so happy and everything is great. And we're so excited because I have these little children that are running around and it's so wonderful. That is not real life, y'all. I'm sorry, but that is not real life. It is also not the experience that most mothers have. Yes, it can be an incredible experience if you are somebody who gets to choose exactly how your birth is going to go. Um, even with C-sections, the recovery time of C-sections is the longest recovery time, but not a lot of people consider or think about that because they think that it's going to be the easiest way to get your child out without having to have that birth experience. I don't know. Um, and there's a lot of doctors that would rather do C-sections

44:55than wait for the baby to be ready for when they come out. I don't know. I mean, my kid was stubborn, he was three days late. Uh, and if there wasn't a giant storm that night and the bare metric pressure dropped, he probably would have stayed in there for a really long time. Uh, lucky for me, he did not because three days after your due date miserable and in, well, going into summer, I wasn't in the middle of the summer, but my poor mom with me being July 25th, my birthday, she had to go through the whole entire summer pretty much. So we don't think about these things. We don't talk about these things. I mean, yes, we do jokingly, probably as parents and as moms and we're like, oh man, like, and then you think about your parents and what they or your mom and what she experienced. And I was like, birthday should be days of celebration for the mom who gave birth to you on that day.

46:02Right? I'm sure those of you that are moms that are like, yeah, that should be my day to do whatever I want, but we get Mother's Day. I know, I know, but still, um, it's something to think about, something to consider and look back on. Like, how was the experience? And I even reflect on those times of like, did I screw my kid up? Right? Like, did I? Because my pregnancy was so stressful, both, really? I mean, if I, if I go from day of conception to all of the timeline of when I was pregnant up to the day of having or giving birth and then the aftermath of all of that, right? It, it was fairly traumatic and they say that traumatic pregnancies can also affect your kid, whether we want to or not, right? And it's not eliminating stress completely. There's no way to

47:06completely eliminate stress, but there's a lot of scientific research that has been done now and continues to be done. And maternal mental health is something that we don't talk about because most old women get the baby blues. Most women get really hormonal. We get sad. We get really overwhelmed because now our hormones are just running the show. It's like, uh, inside out, if you have seen inside out too when they have anxiety. And that guy's like, like, running in circles. Like, that's what our hormones are doing in our bodies. During that time and they're trying to get back to normal and it's just like whacking you all out, then you have this baby that's crying and you're like, what in the heck is happening? What is happening to me? What is happening to this baby? I don't know how to feed them. I don't know what to do, right? Anxiety. Inside out anxiety, if you haven't watched it, go watch it.

48:14And probably if you experience anxiety yourself, you'll be like, oh yeah, that's what it's like. Um, but yeah, it's just one of those things that I think we need to talk about more and we need to have a space that people can talk about these experiences. And when the baby blues lead into postpartum depression, and then there are times that it leads into postpartum psychosis, which is also another thing that we don't talk about. It's a thing that we're like, I'm just supposed to deal with this. Like, I was fine with my first kid. Like, why am I this way with my second kid or third kid or fourth kid or fifth kid or whatever it is, right? Um, why am I so, why is this so different? Why am I experiencing these things? I should be happy. I should be like, glad because this is what I wanted. I wanted to have a kid. I wanted to be the mom. I wanted to write like all these questions. And you're like, why do I feel like crap? Why do I feel depressed?

49:15Why do I feel sad? Why do I feel anxious? Why don't I understand? Why don't I get it? Why is this so freaking hard? It is. And it is normal. Normal. We all go through those hormone imbalances. Those experience are very similar. Not the same because we never have the same experience. But they're very similar. And it's very real. And I think that. And then when we talk about leading into postpartum depression, and then it can lead into postpartum psychosis. I mean, when I was in psychology, we had I took abnormal psychology. And there was a mother who calls it the incident. I think I've talked about this before. But she calls it the incident that she unfortunately killed both of her children. And she was in psychosis. She had no idea what she

50:17was doing. She went, she, this was on her, her second baby, the first baby she had postpartum depression. They treated it. They, she got over it. And they, she was really, really worried about having a second kid. They waited for years and years and years. And they were like, you know, I mean, we can try again. They already know that she had, um, charity had depression, postpartum depression with the first kid. So they were monitoring her. And then she had the second kid. And she went into psychosis. And she went into the facility three times. And none of those three times did they connect the dots. And the unfortunate happened that she killed her children. And she said she doesn't remember any of it. She just remembers wanting to sleep. She just remembers that she was so tired. And she was so, um, tired of the baby, like, crying

51:19because I think the baby had colic if I remember correctly. And there was a time she was just like holding the baby in the baby's head is like draped over her arm and her husband saw it. And he like scooped up the baby. And that's one of the first times that she went into one of the facilities. And the facilities didn't talk to each other. Like I get chills every time I think about this. But I one love the fact that she goes around and talks about this experience. She also still goes to meetings. She was put in a institution, a mental institution that is in Colorado. Instead of a jail. And she still goes and talks about her experience and this incident. And there's too many of these. There's too many of these stories of moms getting to this breaking point that they whether it is in depression or it is in psychosis. I really truly think that

52:24all of the cases that and not that these people, these humans are cases, but understanding that that's what they're called, right? Understanding that all of these incidents that happen are when the mom shifts into psychosis. Because I don't think that anybody in their right mind could go and take the life of their children in the life of themselves without being in that psychosis state. And it's scary and it's there's probably lots of signs. Actually, I know there are there's lots of signs. There's lots of symptoms that come up prior to these events. And man, it's hard, right? It's hard to be a mom. It's hard to have a new baby. It's hard to have a kid you know like mine is 10 going on 11 like it's challenging as a parent to know that you're doing a

53:26good job and staying up with all the trends and staying up with all the things that that we feel like we have to as a parent, right? And it's not just moms. This can include dad, right? Like parenting is hard. It can be challenging. And then when they we always joke like when they start talking, when they start talking back, right? Like that's the thing is like when they start talking back. And when they start getting their independence or trying to figure out their independence, when they start having all those hormones that are raging in their body. And you're like, who just took over my child? Like this is not my sweet innocent child. Like who is that little alien over there? I don't I don't recognize them because now they have all the hormones were about to shift into that time with my my son the the tween and the teen years,

54:27right? Like they the hormones like 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, all the home hormones they're growing and the school is changing and there's so much happening. And as a parent, you're like, what the heck am I doing? How am I going to get through this space? How are they going to change? How is when is this going to get better? Right? And so I think it's important. I I work and we partner with a ton. Okay, not a ton, but several nonprofits that are super duper helpful in this space. One of my fave, my emotional support, nonprofit, which is yana, it's you are not alone mom to I have had Nikki on here. We do a ton of things together and they do a full year of wrap around support for new mamas and it's just something that they need. It's something that we need in society

55:33and the cool part about watching this forum is there's a lot of other nonprofits out there that are also making waves in this area. So with that said, I should probably wrap this up. We're getting to the end, but I want you to just consider maternal mental health is important. Parental mental health is important. That includes all the moms, all the dads, all the parents, all the grandparents that the custodians, the the people who are the caregivers, right? The people that have stepped up that maybe it's not theirs. Parenting is hard and being a mom is hard and we there's a lot of experiences that we go through that not everybody understands, but I want you to understand that you are seen and there's lots of places that you can be heard and there are so many support groups out there just for mamas, take advantage of it. If you're not

56:35yet, take advantage of it. And I hope that this is just eye opening for you. One, learning a little behind the scenes about podcasts, about shows, about radio shows, and then shifting into talking about maternal mental health and how challenging it can be. So what an interesting show that I just put together for you all. No matter what you do, make sure you come back and next Monday I go live every single Monday at 5 AM and 5 PM on Dream Vision 7 radio, or you can watch on e360 TV at 5 PM. That is mountain Denver time. No matter what, I will see you next time. Bye. Thank you for joining today for the Make Mental Health Matter Show. We hope you found today's episode insightful and empowering. Remember your mental health journey doesn't end here. For more resources, support and information, visit us online at makementalhealthmatter.org.

57:41You won't forget to subscribe to our show or follow us on social media to stay connected and continue the conversation will you. That's right, together, let's make mental health matter. Until next time, take care of yourselves and each other.