PAST EVENTS

Capitol Hill Press Conference with Brooke Shields

A group of lawmakers and postpartum depression awareness advocates joined today on Capitol Hill in a call for an increased federal commitment to combating postpartum depression. U.S. Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Rep. Bobby Rush (D-IL) - along with actress Brooke Shields, former New Jersey First Lady Mary Jo Codey, Carol Blocker, Postpartum Support International president Susan Dowd Stone and author Sylvia Lasalandra - announced today's introduction of The MOTHERS Act in the Senate. The bill is similar to Rep. Rush's Melanie Blocker-Stokes Postpartum Depression Research and Care Act (H.R. 20), which has been introduced in the House of Representatives.

Thanks to PerinatalPro.com and Truveo.com for producing and hosting this video.

National PPD Screening Day
The FMHI held its first annual National PPD Screening Day on May 11, 2005 at the American Public Health Association (APHA) in Washington, D.C. The luncheon was the formal debut of the FMHF online screening test, part of the PPD Hope Information Center (www.ppdhope.org). The event drew representatives of some 40 organizations, including the APHA, the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Mental Health Association, the Office of Women's Health, the Office of Minority Health, the National Naval Medical Center and the Washington Group on Health.

Lending their support were Carolyn Rush and Loretta Schaefer Durbin, the wives of Congressman Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), and Senator Richard Durbin (D-Ill.). The two lawmakers are sponsors of the Melanie Blocker Stokes PPD Research and Service Act, which would fund research into the causes and treatment of PPD

Professional education
FMHI has made numerous presentations to hospitals and organiztions:

• National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, MD
• Prince Georges County Medical Center
• The Washington Hospital Center
• DeWitt Army Hospital
• Potomac Hospital, Dale City, VVA
• Memorial Hospital, Easton, Maryland
• Sibley Memorial Hospital, Washington, DC
• Chestertown Hospital, Chestertown Maryland
• The Maryland State Convention of the AAUW
• Women’s Health Virginia
• The Washington School for Psychiatry
• Kaiser Permanente Womens Health Committee
• The Washington Psychiatric Society
• The Mental Health Associationof the Maryland Eastern Shore
• The United States House of Represntatives Staff