Little Mother’s Helper
Join us in supporting Rebecca Egbert’s new postpartum health companion product, Little Mother’s Helper.
“The postpartum period encompasses the full year that follows childbirth, yet most women receive healthcare for only six weeks. 20% of women are diagnosed with post partum depression and the other 80% experience intense mind, body, and spiritual upheaval, yet there’s very little real support.” — Rebecca Egbert
Rebecca Egbert is a midwife, postpartum health specialist, marathon runner and long-time friend of Every Mother Counts. She’s created a new product (like nothing we’ve seen before), called Little Mother’s Helper: A Postpartum Health Companion, designed to educate and support women during their postpartum year. Rebecca recently launched a Kickstarter campaign that runs through September 4th to help bring Little Mother’s Helper to market. Rebecca shares with EMC why this project can help impact millions of women who suffer from postpartum each year.
Several years ago, I came across research that indicated that women who receive an information-based self-care kit from their obstetrician or midwife at their six-week postpartum check-up were more likely to return for healthcare for postpartum depression, post-birth pain and routine healthcare than women who didn’t receive a kit. This was the moment it truly dawned on me that there was a solution to the negative postpartum statistics.
Little Mother’s Helper is a beautifully designed deck of cards and an app that provides holistic, evidence-based information about the physiologic, emotional, mental and spiritual health changes that occur during one of the most vulnerable times in women’s lives.
I’ve long recognized the huge void in self-care information that exists for postpartum women and most of the information is focused solely on physical health. I decided to create something that includes the holistic information midwives, integrative healthcare and functional medicine providers give their patients. The Little Mother’s Helper cards and app covers mind, body, heart and spiritual issues that are common to all mothers. The “body section” covers issues like breast and bottle-feeding, exercise and clean eating. The “mind section” tackles maternal mental health issues like how to get help for postpartum depression and answers questions like, “What does postpartum psychoses, post traumatic stress disorder or anxiety look like?”
The “emotional section” covers relationship issues including common marital issues and the importance of maintaining friendships. And the spiritual cards cover ways to support a connection to whatever faith, belief system or entity you consider as a power greater than yourself. These are subjects that aren’t discussed in routine post partum healthcare.
The purpose of the Kickstarter campaign is to build community, communicate about a new progressive idea and raise funds to help get this product to market. Crowdfunding pulls a community together to share stories and experiences and to improve people’s lives.
At Every Mother Counts, we feel good about spending money for a purpose and the purpose of Little Mother’s Helper is to improve the lives of mothers.
You can support Rebecca by donating to her Kickstarter campaign here. For information about sharing Little Mother’s Helper via social media — click here.