Thank you Dr. Dickens for articulating what I feel like I've been struggling with for years...
"A universal shift of focus to extend ‘stress management’ in the context of health beyond personal responsibility and toward the structural, cultural, and systemic changes necessary to impact all birthing parents, all women, all mothers, all caregivers."
This vague notion and societal narrative telling us all to just "manage your stress and you'll solve your health problems." But stressors don't magically melt away because you want them to because you wake up one day and decide that somehow you're now able to "manage" your stress, because most of these stressors are systemic in nature.
Dr. Gretchen Sisson also talked about this need at the Moms First Summit in NYC a few weeks ago (https://www.momsfirstsummit.us/). Dr. Sisson says "I think it's important to understand the ways that these aren't just individual decisions, because if we put the burden of holding this on each individual mother, each individual family to navigating your own path to having it all, right, then you miss the opportunity to make a collective call to action."
So I'm here for it. I'm here for the collective call to action to get us closer toward the structural, cultural, and systemic changes that we all need. I'm following your lead and the work of The Maternal Stress Project very closely...well done.
So interesting to read about what I knew because I lived it. This is why I couldn’t get pregnant when we had a struggling restaurant. I was testing my pH and it was chronically acidic. Until we closed our restaurant (had to after 9/11) and I was magically in balance. We closed our restaurant in April of 2002 and our son was finally born after six years of infertility in April of 2003.
This is critical knowledge sharing. I’m just soaking up all of your posts, and shouting “sing it sister!” I’ve been working clinically with this demographic for over a decade, and writing about and classifying stressors and their layered complexities, for even longer. The project you are working on is EXACTLY what our society needs right now. I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to connect with you, if my lens could assist on the web and nodes, or collaborate in some way to move this project further!
Such a good scientific breakdown... And in way less than a textbook sized book, so that's much appreciated! I wish I had read this a few weeks ago before I taught a workshop on stress reduction strategies... But I think I caught the gist of it, caveman running from a bear slides included 🤣
Thank you Dr. Dickens for articulating what I feel like I've been struggling with for years...
"A universal shift of focus to extend ‘stress management’ in the context of health beyond personal responsibility and toward the structural, cultural, and systemic changes necessary to impact all birthing parents, all women, all mothers, all caregivers."
This vague notion and societal narrative telling us all to just "manage your stress and you'll solve your health problems." But stressors don't magically melt away because you want them to because you wake up one day and decide that somehow you're now able to "manage" your stress, because most of these stressors are systemic in nature.
Dr. Gretchen Sisson also talked about this need at the Moms First Summit in NYC a few weeks ago (https://www.momsfirstsummit.us/). Dr. Sisson says "I think it's important to understand the ways that these aren't just individual decisions, because if we put the burden of holding this on each individual mother, each individual family to navigating your own path to having it all, right, then you miss the opportunity to make a collective call to action."
So I'm here for it. I'm here for the collective call to action to get us closer toward the structural, cultural, and systemic changes that we all need. I'm following your lead and the work of The Maternal Stress Project very closely...well done.
Thank you for this, Shannon! You captured it so well. And this quote from Dr Sisson is spot on.
So interesting to read about what I knew because I lived it. This is why I couldn’t get pregnant when we had a struggling restaurant. I was testing my pH and it was chronically acidic. Until we closed our restaurant (had to after 9/11) and I was magically in balance. We closed our restaurant in April of 2002 and our son was finally born after six years of infertility in April of 2003.
Btw, listened and loved it. Especially the added footnotes. Hope you do more!
Thank you, Kim!
This is critical knowledge sharing. I’m just soaking up all of your posts, and shouting “sing it sister!” I’ve been working clinically with this demographic for over a decade, and writing about and classifying stressors and their layered complexities, for even longer. The project you are working on is EXACTLY what our society needs right now. I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to connect with you, if my lens could assist on the web and nodes, or collaborate in some way to move this project further!
Thank you so much for this, Dr. Vayali! Yes, let's definitely connect.
I too enjoy soaking up the expertise of folks across this space and would love to learn from your work!
Excellent writing here. 👍
😊 thank you!
My pleasure
Such a good scientific breakdown... And in way less than a textbook sized book, so that's much appreciated! I wish I had read this a few weeks ago before I taught a workshop on stress reduction strategies... But I think I caught the gist of it, caveman running from a bear slides included 🤣