From Professor Bryanne Barnett

We are honoured to share the following endorsement from preeminent child and family psychiatrist Professor Bryanne Barnett AM. Bryanne is currently Conjoint Professor at the University of New South Wales, where she previously held the position of Foundation Chair of Perinatal and Infant Psychiatry at the South Western Sydney Clinical School.

Bryanne is a Foundation Board member of the Australasian Birth Trauma Association (ABTA) and a Foundation member and past President of the Australian Association for Infant Mental Health, the Australian Society for Psychosocial Obstetrics and Gynaecology, and both the International and Australasian Marcé Societies.

Bryanne’s professional interests focus on early intervention, prevention and health promotion. She was a consultant psychiatrist with St John of God Health Care and Karitane, where she was also Chairman of the Board for many years. Bryanne has collaborated with Beyond Blue and in 2007 was awarded Membership of the Order of Australia for services to the profession and to the community.

When I first heard Elly present her unique "Becoming Us" whole-family approach to parenthood, I was impressed to note that she was looking beyond the traditional health and medical outcomes addressing the individual woman or the mother-baby dyad. I have seen so many important ideas come and go over my 30 plus years in this field that I felt compelled to ask her how she intended to spread the word and make her work sustainable.  My recommendation was for Elly to create a professional training program to share her experience, knowledge and wisdom. 

We know from research and clinical experience that there is a reciprocal relationship between partner satisfaction and mental health, and yet this vital factor is rarely included in the education of perinatal health professionals or in the course of their work.

Receiving positive and appropriate social support from the partner is often cited as the most important variable in avoiding perinatal mental health difficulties, and we are well aware of the intergenerational transmission of trauma, but we rarely seem to set about addressing this appropriately over the course of pregnancy and the early postpartum years.

We are missing what could be our best opportunity for prevention and early intervention in mental health for the whole family.

I believe the Becoming Us relationship based approach provides a vital missing piece of the perinatal wellbeing puzzle that is too often overlooked and goes unaddressed. I therefore recommend this practical, insightful and transformative professional training to those who want to provide effective parenthood preparation and support.

This is For You

With the new Edition of Becoming Us hitting bookshelves, Elly reflects back on a year ago…

Six weeks ago I entered Becoming Us into a Nonfiction Book Awards competition with some trepidation. Sure I think it’s a great book, it should be – it took me 15 years to research and write it.

And yes, I get great feedback, from both parents and professionals.

But what I get most of all, what most authors get when they send a book out into the world, is silence.

Many authors think of their books like a baby. This is true for me, too. I tended this book with almost the same love, attention and anticipation I did with my other three kids. They would probably say more.

So silence in response to your baby is worrying.

Is there something wrong with it? Is it too much? Is it going to put people off to the idea and adventure of having kids? Is it going achieve what I set out to do – fill the gap between expectation and reality when it comes to parenthood? Or share the wonder of it, but in an unexpected way?

This morning I received an email to congratulate me that Becoming Us had not only won a Nonfiction Author Book Award, but a Gold Star, the highest level. I also received some feedback from the judges:

“You've written a book I always wished I'd had,
and that I'll love to share”

and “I learned a lot about relationships and family creation.  This is a great book for counseling and human service workers (social workers) and maybe even some obstetrics and gynecology nurses could help if they read this book, especially the last two chapters.”

I’m thrilled and proud that Becoming Us has been acknowledged with this award – but it’s not for me.

To the dear friend who asked “is this how it’s supposed to be?” This is for you.

To the new dad who trusted enough to share in our group that his new baby “felt like an anchor”, this is for you.

To the Childbirth Educator who is going above and beyond her job description to educate beyond the birth, this is for you.

To each and every parent who who wonders if they’re doing the right thing, or even if they've done the right thing bringing a precious baby into our increasingly uncertain world, who worries if they’re the only one feeling this way or why the heck nobody’s talking about all this stuff:

I see you. I hear you. We’ve got you.

This is for you.

If you’d like to see the new edition of Becoming Us, The Couple’s Guide to Surviving Parenthood and Growing a Family that Thrives on your local book shop shelf, please support their business and other parents in your community by ordering your copy there.

We Truly are a Global Village

Becoming Us Facilitator Michelle Yorn meets Linos Muvhu from SPANS Zimbabwe at PSI in Portland.

At the recent Postpartum Support International conference in Portland, OR, we were thrilled to meet Linos Muvhu, Chief Team Leader with SPANS - the Society for Pre and Post Natal Services in Zimbabwe. Linos had connected with Elly previously through the magic of facebook and she was immediately inspired by his passion and commitment to improve perinatal mental health in Africa.

Linos attended our Becoming Us breakout session at PSI, read the new edition of book afterwards and shared that he considers the Becoming Us approach very relevant to families in Zimbabwe.

The term “global village” has never been more apparent to us than it is now. If you’d like to be part of the global village too, please consider supporting SPANS in their efforts to improve perinatal mental health in Africa by donating to their Climb Out of the Darkness Event. Climb out of the Darkness is an initiative organised by Postpartum Support International to honour the struggle to overcome perinatal mental health issues. The struggle is real. Funds will go towards the 2nd International SPANS Conference for Maternal Mental Health in December 2019 with the aim of raising awareness and improving accessibility to perinatal mental health support for mothers, fathers and families in Africa.