EP #152 Building A Local Lifeline For Maternal Mental Health

Postpartum depression doesn’t always look like sadness. Sometimes it shows up as intrusive thoughts, isolation, and the terrifying feeling that you’re failing at the very moment you’re supposed to be “glowing.” We’re joined by Veronica Jones, founder of Unspoken Mothers, a Fredericksburg-area nonprofit created to raise awareness around maternal mental health and connect parents to real, local help.Veronica takes us back to 2020, when she had her first child during COVID and didn’t realize she was experiencing postpartum depression. She shares what finally pushed her to talk to her doctor, how she found her way back through intentional daily choices, and why she later wrote The Part They Left Out using the journal entries she wrote while she was in the darkest part of it. It’s an honest conversation about what mothers often keep unspoken and why naming postpartum anxiety and depression early can change everything.We also dig into the practical support Unspoken Mothers is building right now: the annual Maternal Mental Health 5K in downtown Fredericksburg at Old Mill Park (May 9), the Unspoken Mothers Initiative that helps moms access partner resources like therapists and movement-based healing, and the Unspoken Mothers Cafe pop-up at the YMCA in Caroline where parents can breathe, connect, and reset. If you care about maternal mental health, local nonprofits, and building stronger community support in Fredericksburg VA, this one will stick with you.Subscribe for more local stories, share this conversation with a parent who needs it, and leave a review so more listeners can find the show.Veronica JonesUnspoken [email protected]