In Today's Issue:
⚠️ Every Provider Needs to Hear About Psychosis. No Exceptions
🔥 The Postpartum Restoration Method™
📢 STUDY: What Parents Need Postpartum: They Told Us Loud and Clear
🦸♀️ The Day I Stopped Being Superwoman
⚠️ Every Provider Needs to Hear About Psychosis. No Exceptions
We recently had the honor of interviewing Aaisha Alvi, postpartum psychosis survivor, advocate, and author of A Mom Like That. It was one of the most gripping, raw, and necessary conversations we've ever shared on the podcast, and it’s something every single provider needs to hear.
Aaisha lived through something most of us only read about in textbooks — if we’re lucky. Her story is not just courageous. It’s a call to action.
👉 She begged for help -> from multiple providers.
👉 She was articulate, educated, and terrified.
👉 She told them she was hearing voices to harm herself and baby.
👉 And still, she was sent home. Over and over again.
She survived, barely. But many don’t. And the systems meant to protect women and babies? They’re failing. Not because providers don’t care. But because too few are trained to recognize what postpartum psychosis really looks like.
Aaisha breaks down:
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What postpartum psychosis actually is (and isn’t)
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Why calling it “rare” is not just misleading — it’s dangerous
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The exact difference between intrusive thoughts and psychosis
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How she finally got the care she needed (and what made the difference)
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What you must do if a mother shares something that scares you
💥 You’ll also hear about the emergency protocols every provider should know, and why postpartum psychosis deserves as much clinical attention as any other psychiatric emergency.
🎧 This is more than a podcast episode. It’s mandatory education.
👉 Listen now: Postpartum Psychosis: The Story You Never Hear – with Aaisha Alvi
And please — share it with your team, your peers, your community. Let’s break the silence around psychosis, stop calling it rare, and start saving lives.
Because, as Aaisha says in the episode:
“A mom like that? I am a mom like that. And if you really listened to me, you might realize… you're not so different from me after all.”
The Postpartum Restoration Method™
To every single one of you who downloaded the Postpartum Restoration Method™ Assessment Tool — thank you.
The feedback has been pouring in, and it’s been nothing short of incredible. From DMs to emails, the stories you're sharing about how this is already transforming your work with clients are why we do this. You’re seeing the gaps, and now you’re filling them. You’re helping women feel seen. You’re changing the trajectory of postpartum care — right now.
And with all this excitement, we’ve also seen a flood of questions about the Postpartum Restoration Method™ itself…
So what is the Postpartum Restoration Method™?
The short answer: It’s the foundation of everything we teach at Postpartum University®.
For years, I’ve shared this framework under a different name. It’s the root of my book, Reclaiming Postpartum Wellness, and the basis of the tools, trainings, and protocols I’ve developed. But after someone recently attempted to copy and claim this work, it became clear that it was time to own the method fully, new name, updates, and all.
The Postpartum Restoration Method™ is the signature framework that runs through every one of our trainings — from functional nutrition to perinatal mental health.
This method addresses five interconnected components of postpartum recovery:
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Physiological Restoration
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Nutritional Foundation
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Neurological Regulation
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Rhythmic Recovery
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Identity Integration
It’s about treating the whole person, not just the symptoms. It’s about bringing women back into their bodies, their strength, and their truth.
If you want to start working within this method today, the best place to begin is our Perinatal Mental Health Certification Training — now open for enrollment. This course goes deep into the roots of perinatal mental health challenges and equips you with the tools to support mothers beyond the standard checklist.
📘 And if you haven’t yet read Reclaiming Postpartum Wellness, that’s where this all began.
We’re building a future where postpartum healing is complete, connected, and powerful — and we’re doing it together.
📢 What Parents Need Postpartum: They Told Us Loud and Clear (A Study)
A new 2025 study out of the UK reveals what we’ve known for years, but haven’t acted on: postnatal care isn’t working for most families—not because we don’t care, but because we’re under-resourced, inconsistent, and not listening deeply enough.
The SIPP (Supporting Infants and Parents in the Perinatal Period) study interviewed new parents from diverse backgrounds in a large hospital system. Two main themes emerged from their stories:
1. Parents Crave Continuity, Connection, and Customization
Parents didn’t ask for luxury or perfection. They asked for:
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A single, consistent point of contact.
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Clear, aligned messaging from professionals.
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Emotional and practical support that felt personal.
Instead, they often got rotating staff, contradictory advice, and brief interactions. The result? Confusion, isolation, and distrust.
2. The Transition Into Parenthood Is Individual—and Often Lonely
Many parents didn’t know what was “normal,” how to access services, or who to ask. Social support, if present, often came from partners or WhatsApp groups, not from formal services. And for those without strong networks, the gap was painfully wide.
Here’s What They Told Us Works:
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Hands-on teaching (not videos or pamphlets).
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Rooming-in options before discharge.
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Professionals who ask about mental health—and mean it.
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Help that acknowledges cultural, emotional, and logistical complexity.
This isn’t just another critique. The researchers took what parents said and brought it directly to leadership. As a result, local policies changed—like reinstating a maternity hotline and improving cultural competency training.
This is what real listening looks like. Not just collecting stories, but honoring them with action.
This study validates what many of us witness every day in postpartum care:
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Parents are smart, intuitive, and capable but overwhelmed.
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The system isn’t broken because of a lack of care; it’s breaking under the weight of outdated models, workforce shortages, and siloed services.
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Fixing postpartum care means co-creating it, with families at the table from the start.
This isn’t just a policy paper. It’s a call to remember that supporting families isn't about scaling services—it's about making them human again.
So now it’s our turn.
What if every care plan began with the question: What do you need most right now?
What if every provider stopped to ask not just how are you, but how are you really—and what’s making you feel that way?
What if we stopped measuring success in checklists and started measuring it in trust, in confidence, in connection?
This study is a mirror. Let’s look into it and ask:
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Where can I create more continuity in the way I support?
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Where can I simplify care, not by doing less, but by showing up more fully?
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Where have I assumed what people need instead of asking?
Because the future of postpartum care isn’t built in boardrooms.
It’s built at the bedside, in the home, and through relationships that honor the lived experience of becoming a parent.
Let’s build that future together—one honest question, one brave change, one family at a time.
Link to article: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0305786
🦸♀️ The Day I Stopped Being Superwoman
I hear this often and I want to talk about this here and now.
People tell me all the time:
"You’re superwoman!" (especially after releasing the Postpartum Restoration Method™ Assessment Tool!)
They say it with admiration. With awe. And I know it’s meant as a compliment. I run a major company, homeschool my four kids, raise a homestead, and somehow still have time to quilt and cook.
But let me say it as clearly as I can:
I am not superwoman.
And I refuse to ever be anymore.
I remember the exact moment it hit me, when I was pregnant with my fourth (unexpectedly, I might add). I was overwhelmed. Everything felt heavy. And my sweet husband, in a genuine attempt to reassure me, looked at me and said,
"It’s going to be fine. You’re superwoman."
I stood up.
I hit the table.
And with tears in my eyes, I declared:
“I can be superwoman. But I don’t want to be.”
That moment changed my life. It was the first crack in the martyrdom I’d worn like armor. It was the start of a healing I didn’t yet understand. I no longer wanted to carry the weight of everything just because I could. I didn’t want to manage it all. I wanted to live it—differently.
So I re-visioned my life.
Piece by piece, I rebuilt how I mother, how I work, how I show up in the world. And it wasn’t easy. It never is.
I recently heard a quote:
“I asked God for a flower, and He gave me rain.”
Read that closely. That rain? It was cleansing. It stripped away the things that weren’t mine to hold anymore. It taught me that ease and peace don’t come from doing more—they come from doing less with more intention. More boundaries. More support. More honesty.
If you’ve ever been told you’re superwoman...
If you’ve ever believed that meant you had to keep carrying it all...
Let me lovingly say:
You can put it down. You can choose something else.
Ask yourself:
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What would it look like to not be superwoman anymore?
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What would I need to let go of in order to actually feel free?
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And who could I become if I stopped doing what everyone expects of me?
Let this be your rain.
Let it water something new.
Because I promise: the flowers come.
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
