Tag: motherhood

Tuve Depresión Postparto Dos Veces y Nunca Me La Diagnosticaron

Describes a woman’s experience with two bouts of undiagnosed postpartum depression. She explains her thoughts and experiences of feeling unable to take care of her children and how these were largely ignored by health professionals. Story is framed with Q&A about postpartum depression: symptoms, frequency, treatment, etc. Acessible, magazine-style 10 minute read, intermediate and native speakers; good discussion starter for a community group.

El misterio del duelo, aprenda cómo estar presente

This story describes the pain of a mother who gave up a foster daughter, Coco. A year later, she adopted a baby boy, and described this grief to the social worker, noticing that having language to describe the specific loss – “duelo por falta de derechos,” – ‘grief because you have no rights (to keep the child)’ – helped the family move on. 10 minute read, upper intermediate level.

Why I Became a Speech-Language Pathologist: My SLP Story

Lisette Edgar, a professional speech language pathologist (SLP), recounts her journey discovering the field through her son’s speech challenges and ultimately deciding to pursue a career as an SLP. She details her son’s pronunciation difficulties that were first noticed when he was three, and how, in getting him assistance, she was catapulted into the unfamiliar world of speech therapy. Due to a shortage of speech therapists at her son’s school, Edgar ended up doing a lot of lessons and practice at home. When she began working as a substitute teacher at her son’s school, she got even more exposure to the work speech therapists do, and she decided to go to graduate school to become an SLP. On Edgar’s blog, there are many resources and lessons that focus on subjects from autism to apraxia to stuttering. This post would be useful in a pre-professional medical class to inform students about the different pathways they can take with their medical careers aside from being physicians. It would also fit very well into a graduate SLP class as an introduction to how various people get involved with the field, and how signs of speech difficulties show up—and can often be overlooked—in young children. One assignment that could be created off of this is to have students browse the resources and then create an exercise of their own that could be used to help children with a speech condition.

Mary Jane: A play about caregiving for a young child with serious health conditions

Mary Jane is a single mother of a young child with cerebral palsy, seizure disorder, and lung disease. The play portrays her caregiving, both in ordinary times and during a health crisis that eventually takes his life. We see her build a support network, including professional caregivers and others with whom she gives and receives support. She is a fierce advocate for her son and her descriptions of him and her life with him make clear the value of disabled lives.

I plan to use this in class as an example of a caregiver narrative that shows the ways in which family members are impacted by illness and the significance of their support and advocacy. It is a powerful statement about the joy and the pain of caregiving (at one point in the play, Mary Jane states that one of the more useful things someone said to her early on was that there would be good days and bad days). It also portrays ways that our healthcare system and society often fail to support caregivers. There are scenes in which healthcare providers address Mary Jane only as “mom” and the only staff member in the hospital who addresses her by name is a chaplain.

Historias de la vida real de personas que tienen diabetes durante el embarazo

A woman who was diagnosed with gestational diabetes learns to take this diagnosis seriously because of possible effects on the baby. This story emphasizes the importance of prenatal doctor’s visits and may be best suited for a community group. Medical Spanish courses might talk about health education for Spanish speaking communities.

When the Uber Driver Asks, Do You Have Any Kids?

Prompted by the Uber driver’s small talk, this disabled author reflects on how an alternative self, who is not disabled, might answer–or would not have to answer, because her life would be different. Telling the story of the alternative self and life is a means of revealing some of the ways her Stargardt disease (a rare genetic eye condition) has affected the author. The story speaks to non-apparent disabilities, cultural assumptions (about women, about able-bodied-ness), stigma, and disability.

Difficult Choices

In this 2-minute video from the Youtube channel Story Center, a mother describes the discrimination that she faced for expressing breast milk at work. The narrator draws attention to the discrimination she and many other people who breastfeed faced, and the effect that her decision to breastfeed had on her career–although she successfully pursued a complaint that resulted in compensation and promises to change policy, she ultimately lost her job. “Difficult Choices” provides a succinct example of workplace discrimination against mothers, the legal remedies available, and their limitations. It could prompt discussion about the use of personal stories for advocacy.

Una carta para mama

Carla tells her story of how her mother’s disposition changed after her father’s hospitalization with diabetes. One day, Carla came home to see her mother, Jaquelina, on the floor. She shook her and slapped her awake. Jaquelina finally woke up to say she wished she had aborted Carla. This is only where the physical and verbal abuse began. Years like this went on and Carla moved out, cutting off all ties. However, after hearing about Jaquelina attending AA, they both began rekindling their bond. Carla comes from Argentina. The audio may be fit for intermediate Spanish learners. This podcast features themes of physical and verbal abuse and therefore may be suitable for an upper level undergraduate course or medical school student.

The cookie jar

A rare Stephen King short story that’s both publicly available in a literature magazine and on point for a health narratives course. It has the SK mark of supernatural weirdness/ unexplainability and also nicely profound messages about why human beings turn down unlimited good things – like fresh baked cookies – in favor of something horrible, like war. Mental health struggles become a superpower and there’s symbolism to keep a literature class well engaged for a class period.