Delivered: Postpartum Mental Health

Expecting parents are told to prepare for the highest highs, but how about the lowest lows? Or the moments of uncertainty in between? The postpartum period is filled with mental and physical challenges that are sidelined in many public conversations about parenthood. In the two-episode special “Delivered,” Embodied opens up conversations about the under-discussed parts of pregnancy and childbirth, from the stigma around postpartum bodies to the mental health challenges experienced by non-birthing parents.

In Postpartum Mental Health, host Anita Rao explores the cultural silence around postpartum mental health. She talks with A’Driane Nieves, an artist whose postpartum depression catalyzed a mental health journey and Bipolar II diagnosis, and married couple Shannon Purdy Jones and Darren Jones. The Joneses share how they’ve navigated their sex life and relationship postpartum and why they firmly believe that the mental health of non-birthing partners should be a more prominent part of the postpartum conversation.