LONGWOOD, Fla. – The owner of an Altamonte Springs birth center hosted a stroller walk at Reiter Park on Saturday, the day before Mother’s Day, to highlight the importance of maternal health and wellness.

“We’re having women — mothers with strollers — walking around to bring attention, and then we’re handing out pamphlets that talk about maternal mental health, wellness, and the fact that one in three women do suffer from mood disorders not only after pregnancy, but during pregnancy,” said Dr. Kaleen Richards with Tree of Life Birth & Gynecology.

According to Richards, from the moment a child is conceived through a year after child birth, women have a huge influx of hormones that could deteriorate their mental health.

“In the first year after childbirth, the number-one cause of death in women is suicide,” she said. “We’re trying to raise awareness so that we there isn’t a stigma and shame around perinatal mood disorders, and to let women know that there is help.”

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Richards’ birth center offers postpartum visits and support croups to help these new mothers get through the tough times.

“It’s not like, ‘Here’s a pill and be better,’ right? It takes weekly support. It takes them coming and feeling care, feeling compassion, feeling support,” Richards said.

Neriyah Israel, who walked with the group Saturday, says she had struggles after the birth of her fourth child.

“I actually developed postpartum depression after my fourth child, and it was so bad, I had to be admitted into a mental facility for six days,” she said. “Usually after you have the baby, it’s like, ‘Let’s check on the baby,’ and then, ‘Mom, you’re just fine,’ but it’s a lot of mental anguish that you go through, all the hormones kind of trying to settle back down, so it can cause a lot of stress on you mentally, and sadly there’s some stories where women have actually harmed themselves and harmed their children because of this.”

Because of what she went through, Israel said it meant the world to spread awareness ahead of Mother’s Day.

Learn more by visiting Tree of Life’s website.