Emily, can you tell us all a little bit about your work and what really drew you to helping families process these really difficult birth and early parenting experiences?

Sure, absolutely.

So I am a licensed clinical social worker.

I'm based in Maryland in the US, and really a lot of personal experience kind of led me to being interested in specializing in perinatal mental health.

After I became a mother, it became really apparent that there were certain aspects of adjusting to the parenting journey that just weren't being supported enough, and so I became really passionate about helping those birthing parents specifically, that's where I started, with feeling held and seen and supported as they navigated things like anxiety and depression.

And then sort of a natural jump from there for me when I had my daughter, I just had this idea of like, "Why is there not a place to reflect on what it's like for the birthing person to go through the birth process?" I mean, there's like a baby book for you to write down these things about like little milestones maybe in your pregnancy or the birth to an extent or after baby showers, but what about like the other really deep stuff that we experience and go through? And I always-- I'm really sentimental, I think, about the very human things we go through and the depth that those can get to emotionally, spiritually, all of those things.

And so I just thought, "Why not create a place to slow down with that?" And That was for really all birth experiences, but then, of course, with my own clients and training other perinatal mental health therapists to, to see the upsetting ones, I mean, those are absolutely included as well.

So I know that it's a massive undertaking.