In Today's Issue:
🔥 Healing the Healers: Stories of Motherhood, Burnout & Postpartum Mental Health
đź©ş The $34,000 Placebo: Brexalonone + Zuranolone Investigative Study Released
✨ The New Standard in Postpartum Care: A Big Shift at PPU®
🔥 Healing the Healers: Stories of Motherhood, Burnout & Postpartum Mental Health
This week on the podcast, I had the honor of doing something different — a co-hosted conversation with my past client and dear friend Corina Fitch. Corina is a midwife of 25 years, mother of three, and the founder of Motherfly. She brings a rare blend of wisdom and soul to the world of maternal care, and together, we peeled back the layers of our own healing journeys.
We talked about our postpartum bipolar, matrescence, and how our personal pain shaped the very foundations of the work we now do — for women, for families, and for the future of care.
✨ We laughed about checking our own cervixes.
✨ We cried through memories of not being supported when we needed it most.
✨ We challenged the martyrdom of modern motherhood and how the “supermom” story is harming us.
✨ And we opened up about how we built lives and businesses because of — not in spite of — our hardest moments.
This conversation isn't just for providers. It's for anyone who’s felt alone in their struggles, who’s questioned their identity through motherhood, and who knows there must be a better way forward.
đź’¬ Here's one thing that stood out most:
“You can do everything — you’re Superwoman.”
And I remember saying, “I don’t want to be Superwoman. I’m done being her.”
We don’t thrive by doing it all alone. We thrive when we build systems, call in support, and say yes only to what aligns with our queendom.
👇 Listen to the full episode here:
Click to listen → https://postpartumu.com/podcast/healing-the-healers-stories-of-motherhood-burnout-postpartum-mental-health-corina-fitch-ep-223/
And reply to this email — I’d love to know:
What parts of your journey have you had to rewrite?
Where are you being called to soften, or say no, or be held instead of holding?
đź©ş The $34,000 Placebo: Brexalonone + Zuranolone Investigative Study Released
Last week, a major Cochrane review dropped, casting fresh scrutiny on the so-called “breakthrough” neurosteroid drugs for postnatal depression: brexanolone (Zulresso) and its oral counterpart, zuranolone.
Hailed by many (including PSI) as revolutionary, these GABA-A receptor modulators promised “fast, targeted relief” for struggling mothers. But the actual data? It tells a very different story.
Let’s start with effectiveness.
Brexanolone, administered via a 60-hour IV infusion, showed no meaningful advantage over placebo after 30 days. Its impact on remission and response was statistically indistinct from a sugar pill.
Zuranolone, a 14-day oral treatment, did slightly outperform placebo—but only modestly, and only at the 45-day mark.
Translation: One barely beats placebo, the other only somewhat—and even then, it’s not clear how long the effect lasts... (because there's no study done after 45 days!)
Then there’s the issue of bias.
Every single study on these drugs was bankrolled, managed, analyzed, and published by the companies that make them—Sage Therapeutics and Marinus Pharmaceuticals. Cochrane explicitly flags this as a major source of bias. When those selling the product control the data, selective storytelling becomes inevitable.
There are no comparisons to SSRIs or talk therapy. No data beyond six weeks for brexanolone, or 45 days for zuranolone. No insight into breastfeeding safety, even in settings with hospital-grade monitoring.
And yet, promotional language continues to flood the space, glossing over these massive unknowns.
And let’s not forget the side effects.
Both drugs are associated with sedation, dizziness, and even episodes of loss of consciousness. In brexanolone trials, participants were nearly three times more likely to drop out due to adverse events than those on placebo.
So we ask: Is a 60-hour hospital stay and hefty price tag worth such uncertain gain? Are we really prioritizing maternal health—or just pharmaceutical marketing?
Here’s the bottom line:
âś… Zuranolone may offer slight short-term relief, with side effects to weigh.
❌ Brexanolone provides low-certainty evidence of little to no benefit.
⚠️ Neither drug has been tested against standard care, for long-term outcomes, or for infant safety.
PSI and others may have jumped to crown a “game-changer.” But the real breakthrough? That would be unbiased, transparent research that respects the full scope of postpartum care—beyond industry talking points.
Until then, women deserve the full story.
-> Read the Cochrane Library Study HERE
✨ The New Standard in Postpartum Care: A Big Shift at PPU®
There’s a quiet revolution happening at Postpartum University®—and if you’re thinking about joining the Fall cohort of the Postpartum Nutrition Certification, you’ll want to read this.
Starting this fall, all new enrollees will be required to complete the Perinatal Mental Health Training before beginning the Nutrition Certification.
Yes, this is a big change. And here’s why it matters.
Why We’re Raising the Bar
The postpartum body is not just physical. It’s emotional. It’s neurological. It’s deeply, intricately hormonal. And healing is never one-dimensional.
At PPU, we’ve seen time and again: the practitioners who go the farthest and serve the deepest understand the full spectrum of postpartum health—including the complex and often-misunderstood world of perinatal mental health.
And that’s why we’ve made this training the official foundation.
Here’s what we’re hearing:
“I thought I had a grasp on postpartum mental health—until I took this training. Now I realize I was missing the entire root system beneath the surface symptoms.”
— Lynn S., Certified Midwife & Herbalist
“I can’t believe how much this shifted my approach. I’m not just checking boxes anymore—I’m truly seeing the mother in front of me.”
— Dr. Katie M., ND
How the Two Programs Work Together
The Perinatal Mental Health Training is not your typical “recognize the signs of PPD” course. It goes deeper—into the biology of trauma, the neuroscience of matrescence, and the systemic gaps that leave mothers behind. You’ll gain critical frameworks for care, compassionate language tools, and a trauma-informed lens that reshapes everything.
Then—and only then—you step into the Postpartum Nutrition Certification. This program is unapologetically in-depth: metabolic pathways, nutrient deficiencies, gut healing, thyroid and autoimmune implications, hormonal recalibration… and yes, real food protocols that actually work.
Combined, these programs prepare you to:
-
Deliver truly root-cause care for postpartum mothers
-
Confidently navigate mental health struggles and nutritional imbalances
-
Advocate for better systems—with data and empathy
-
Build a trauma-informed, holistic postpartum practice with unmatched depth
Why This Change Matters
Because piecemeal care isn't working.
Because postpartum depression isn't just a “mental” issue—and nutritional depletion isn’t just about “eating better.”
Because mothers are falling through the cracks of siloed care—and we’re here to change that forever.
“This is what I wish I had 10 years ago. It would have changed everything for my clients—and for me.”
— Elena D., LCSW
What This Means for You
If you’re considering joining the September Nutrition Certification cohort, now is the time to enroll in the Perinatal Mental Health Training. The mental health course can be completed in a matter of weeks, entirely online, and will position you to start the certification fully prepared, grounded, and aligned.
Join the future of postpartum care. Start with the foundation.
➡️ Enroll in the Perinatal Mental Health Training today.
➡️ Get on the waitlist for the Fall Postpartum Nutrition Certification cohort.
We’re not just building better programs.
We’re building better providers.
And ultimately, a better world for mothers.
Stay fierce, stay rooted,
Maranda Bower
CEO & Founder of Postpartum University®
www.PostpartumU.com
Current Ways You Can Work With Postpartum University®
đź””Get on the Postpartum Nutrition Certification Waitlist
📝Free Postpartum Restoration Method™ Assessment Tool
🧠Perinatal Mental Health Certificate Training
đź’Ś 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
