How PPD Affects Kids. And What Triggered My Personal Breakdown

In Today's Issue:

👶 When PPD Is Missed, Kids Pay the Price — And I’ve Lived It

💥 Postpartum Depression Isn’t a Mystery -> It’s a Warning Sign.

💛 Let’s Talk About Becoming a PPU Affiliate

🔥 The Moment I Remembered I Am Sacred

👶 When PPD Is Missed, Kids Pay the Price — And I’ve Lived It

I don’t just talk about postpartum depression because of the research.

I talk about it because I lived it.

After my son was born, I swore I did everything “right.” I loved him deeply. I talked to him constantly. We bonded, we connected, and from the outside, everything probably looked fine.

But inside? I knew something wasn’t.

The way I was connecting to the world was different. I felt like I was watching life happen from the outside. Like I was trying to do motherhood from a place of depletion, fog, and survival.

Years later, my son was diagnosed with ADHD. And you know what? I wasn’t surprised.

Because there’s a connection—a strong one—between postpartum mood disorders and neurodivergence in children. And this new research just confirmed it again.

📊 A study published this month followed over 2,000 mother–child pairs and found:

👉 Children of mothers with persistent or late-onset PPD had significantly higher emotional and behavioral difficulties.

In other words, it’s not just the early postpartum window that matters. The duration of symptoms—and whether or not the mother was supported—has profound ripple effects on her child’s long-term development.

Key findings you should know:

⚠️ Persistent symptoms = persistent risk.
Even if a mom looks “fine” at six weeks, if her PPD continues without support, her child is more likely to struggle behaviorally and emotionally later in life.

⏰ Late-onset PPD matters.
Symptoms that show up months after birth are just as impactful—and often go undetected.

🧠 Maternal mental health shapes the child’s brain.
ADHD, anxiety, emotional dysregulation—these can all be linked to how a mother’s nervous system was functioning in the earliest months of her child’s life.

It’s not about blame. It’s about biology.
And it’s about getting women the support they need before things spiral.

I see this in the research.
I see this in my clients.
And I see this in my own home.

And this is why your work—our work—matters more than ever.

Because postpartum care isn’t just about bouncing back.
It’s about breaking generational cycles.

📣 Share this study with a colleague.
📬 Share your story with us (just hit reply—we read every single one).
📥 And if you haven’t yet, download the Postpartum Restoration Method™ Assessment Tool—because every mother deserves real, root-cause care.

Read the study here.

💥 Postpartum Depression Isn’t a Mystery—It’s a Warning Sign.

Let’s say the quiet part loud:

Postpartum depression isn’t a random chemical imbalance. It’s a biological warning sign.

And women everywhere are living proof.

For decades, we’ve been fed a lie:
“That feeling you have after birth? The one where everything feels off? It’s just hormones. It’s normal. You’ll get over it.”

But here’s what I said in a recent conversation with my dear friend Janelle Lara:

“It is a biological normal to develop postpartum depression—when you're missing the tools necessary to heal. That’s not a diagnosis. That’s a cry for help.”

We’ve normalized suffering because it’s common.
But that doesn’t mean it’s okay.

Let’s break this wide open:

🧠 Mental health disorders are the #1 complication of childbirth.
Yet most moms get one postpartum appointment. Maybe a depression screener. That’s it.

👎 Postpartum “care” is a cop-out.
If your follow-up includes a questionnaire and a birth control prescription, that’s not medicine. That’s abandonment.

🍽️ Nutrition isn’t a bonus—it’s a requirement.
Your gut completely shifts after birth. If you're not eating foods that are both nutrient-dense and easy to digest, your body can't heal. Period.

💥 Postpartum depression is not just depression.
It’s a symptom of a nervous system on high alert, a gut in crisis, and a culture that thinks doing this alone is “strong.”

And when I say this, I’m not preaching from a pedestal—I’ve lived it.
I've walked the road of depletion. I’ve wondered what was wrong with me.
And I’ve come out the other side with a message:

It doesn’t have to be this way.

What can you do with this truth?

✔️ If you’re a mom: You’re not crazy. You’re not failing. Your body is asking for more.
✔️ If you’re a provider: It’s time to bring biology back into postpartum care.
✔️ If you’re a friend/family member: Support the mom—not just the baby. Do the dishes. Drop off broth. Ask how she’s really doing.

Want to go deeper into this conversation?

🎧 Listen to the full episode on the Postpartum University Podcast
🎥 Or watch the full interview with Janelle Lara on YouTube

📘 And grab Reclaiming Postpartum Wellness -> because knowing what’s really going on inside the postpartum body is step one to healing.

Together, we are rewriting the standard of care.

💛 Let’s Talk About Becoming a PPU Affiliate

I’ve been getting this question a lot lately—can I become an affiliate for the Postpartum Nutrition Certification Program?

The short answer? Yes—and I’d love that.
Because when you recommend our program, you’re not just sharing something helpful—you’re changing the entire landscape of postpartum care.

And yes, when someone enrolls through you, you earn over $500 per person.
(Seriously. We want our affiliates to win.)

But here’s the longer answer—because you know I like to keep it real:

I have one personal rule for affiliate partnerships:
👉 I need to know you, or I need to know you know my work.
Like, deeply. As in: you’ve taken the course, read the book, shared the podcast, or you know me on a personal level and can speak to the ethics behind this mission.

Because this work matters too much to hand out like coupons.

So if you’re nodding along—if you get it, if you’ve felt this work in your bones—I invite you to join us as an affiliate:
👉 www.postpartumu.com/affiliate

Whether you’re a provider, a coach, a doula, or just someone who has seen the power of this work—you have influence.
Let’s use it well. Let’s change postpartum care together.

🔥 The Moment I Remembered I Am Sacred

The other day I was in the shower, tired. Four kids home for summer, no school, no childcare, no pause button.
Creating anything—content, courses, a coherent thought—has felt impossible.

And then, as I was washing, I saw blood.

My period had started. And instead of frustration or inconvenience, what washed over me was something entirely different: recognition.

Of course it came. Of course I’m bleeding.
Because I have been creating. I created four lives. I am still creating—shaping, leading, responding, co-creating with them, with God, with the sacred thread that runs through this whole wild thing called motherhood.

This is not TMI. This is truth.

We bleed.
We create.
We carry the power of life within us.

And somehow we’ve been taught to seek power, divinity, truth, from something outside of us.
We’ve been taught to look up, instead of within.
To reach for approval, validation, sanctity from a source we were told was far from our bodies—far from the mess, the milk, the blood.

But what I’ve been rediscovering lately—through the sacred feminine, through the stories of the women and priestesses who came before us, especially Mary Magdalene—is that God is not distant.

God is right here.
In the womb.
In the breasts.
In the kitchen.
In the garden.
In the cries and the chaos and the quiet.

The sacred is not separate from motherhood. The sacred is motherhood.

When we support a mother in postpartum, we’re not just helping her “bounce back.”
We’re tending to the portal of life itself.
We are saying: you matter. Your body is a temple. Your experience is holy. Your work is sacred.

If we want to change the world, this is where we start.

Heal the mothers, heal the world.

Take a moment. Put your hand on your belly, your heart, your womb — wherever you feel the center of yourself.

Ask:
Where have I felt the sacred within me lately?
What am I creating — seen or unseen?
Where might I need support to remember my power?

Let the answers come without judgment.
You don’t need to earn your divinity. You are living it. Right now.

Stay fierce, stay rooted,
Maranda Bower
CEO & Founder of Postpartum University®
www.PostpartumU.com

Current Ways You Can Work With Postpartum University®
🔔Get on the Postpartum Nutrition Certification Waitlist
📝Free Postpartum Restoration Method™ Assessment Tool
🧠Perinatal Mental Health Certificate Training

💌 Know someone who gets it?
This newsletter is basically a secret handshake for providers who are done with surface-level postpartum care and want something deeper, realer, and rooted in truth. Forward this to your people—the ones who need to be in on these conversations. 👉 They can join us here: www.postpartumu.com/newsletter