For the past few weeks, I’ve found myself reading the news with a pit in my stomach and unable to do anything. The headlines around maternal mental health kept coming, and each one landed on the same truth: the mothers who need help the most are so often the last to ask for it. The women whose “I’m fine” is so convincing that nobody thinks to ask a second time. Nobody asks the strong one if she’s okay. So this week, we’re doing something about it.

What we’re launching

Courage to Confide is a maternal mental health campaign built around one message: it’s ok to not be ok, and asking for help is not weakness. It’s an act of leadership. Think about what you already do in every room that matters. You name the risk nobody wants to name. You say the hard thing while there’s still time to act on it. That is leadership, and it is the exact same skill as saying “I’m not okay” out loud. We’ve just never been taught to point it inward. The campaign speaks directly to the mothers least likely to reach out, and reminds them, and all mothers, that struggling is common, treatable, and nothing to carry alone. At its center is a short film that opens with Iskra Lawrence telling the truth about her own postpartum depression, because everything begins with someone brave enough to go first. Alongside it, we’ve built a shareable resource guide, graphics anyone can post, and a website where every mother can find real, free, confidential support in one place.

Why it matters

Here’s the hard truth in numbers:

• Mental health conditions are a leading cause of death for new mothers in this country.
• One in five mothers experiences a maternal mental health condition, which makes it the most common complication of pregnancy and childbirth.
• Seventy-five percent of them never receive treatment.
• And when state committees reviewed the maternal deaths caused by mental health conditions, they found every single one preventable.

Every one of those numbers includes a woman. Most of them looked fine from the outside. Many of them were the strongest person someone else knew.

This is a coalition, not a campaign

The part I’m proudest of: we are not doing this alone. More than fifty brands, organizations, and voices have joined together to carry this message in the same week, so that it saturates rather than whispers. Every one of them has agreed to the same rule. Resources come first. Nothing here sells anything. Because a mother who sees this message from several brands she trusts, all at once, stops hearing a campaign and starts hearing permission. And when one woman finds the courage to confide, the women around her realize they’re allowed to follow. Special thanks to our coalition of brands:

• Auggie
• Better Help
• Bumpsuit
• Chiyo
• Evergreen
• HATCH
• HoneySeed
• Jam with Jamie
• Kamp Katie
• MilkMate
• Millionaire Mother
• Motherverse
• Nanit
• Norms
• Oppal
• Perelel
• Pipette Baby
• Poppylist
• Recess
• Sage Haus
• Saltair
• Serenity Kids
• The Mom Walk Collective
• The Mother Years
• The Power Pause
• WeNatal
• With Elizabeth

How you can be part of it

You don’t need a platform or a brand to help. You just need a voice and one person to point it toward.

• Share the campaign when it goes live this week. Post the film, save the resource guide, send it to one mother who needs it. 
• Go first. Post your own story in your own words, if and only if you are comfortable. The campaign’s power is women saying “I was not okay” out loud. Tag: @wearethebreadwinners and use #COURAGETOCONFIDE #ItsOKtoNotBeOK
• Ask the strongest mother you know how she’s really doing. Then ask again. The first answer is almost never the real one.
• If you’re the one struggling, let this be your permission. Tell one person. You don’t have to tell everyone. You have to tell someone.

The Resources, always

These are free, confidential, and staffed by people trained for exactly this. Save them. Share them. You never know whose feed they need to land in.

• Better Help
• oPPal
• National Maternal Mental Health Hotline: call or text 1-833-TLC-MAMA (1-833-852-6262), 24/7
• Postpartum Support International: 1-800-944-4773
• Crisis Text Line: text HOME to 741741

It’s ok to not be ok. And the courage to confide is the confidence to lead. I would love nothing more than for you to get involved. Share your story. As always, thanks for being here,
Alexis