mitúCares: Wellness Para La Mama Wins Grant To Help Mother Access Mental And Emotional Support
Motherhood and pregnancy are trying times for so many women around the world. There is anxiety, depression, and so many other emotions that happen during these times. Mental health is a touchy subject in our community but Wellness Para la Mama is working to change that. mitúCares has chosen Wellness Para la Mama to receive a grant to help with their missions to help women in our community.
Dr. Susana Marquez wants to get mothers the mental and emotional help they need.
“When I say a healthy mama is a healthy family, I say it because I’ve been there,” Dr. Marquez tells mitú. “I’ve seen the struggles of my family when I was in an unhealthy place; when I wasn’t emotionally in a good place; when I was going through my own grief and loss when I lost my father and how that affected me tremendously and how my son was also being affected by that and how my husband was being affected by that. I realized that in order for me to be able to be a better mom, be a better wife, be a better woman, I do need to take care of myself.”
She added: “Our mission is to create a healthy mama is a healthy family by providing any type of mental and emotional support that that mom needs through her pregnancy and postpartum phase.”
Wellness Para la Mama came about after her own battles with mental health during and after her pregnancy.
Like so many other women, Dr. Marquez struggled with her mental health during her pregnancy and after her son’s birth in 2014. As a licensed professional, Dr. Marquez knew what was happening and knew what to expect. Yet, as a Latina, Dr. Marquez acknowledges that conversations around mental health is a really taboo subject. It took her two years to finally get to the place that she could start seeking help.
“We see our mothers and our maternal grandmothers and tías and so many other different people in our community who have helped raise us,” Dr. Marquez explains. “We see that if they were able to do it with fewer resources or not even know the language, there’s this big expectation that we should be able to do it ourselves. That made it even more difficult for me to ask for help.”
When she did start to find the help she needed, Dr. Marquez realized that there was a huge gap in the field for Latina and Latinx mothers. That is why she created Wellness Para la Mama.
Dr. Marquez’s mission is having a lasting impact on mothers who do the work.
Wellness Para la Mama is giving women the tools they need to deal with emotional and mental issues that arise from pregnancy and giving birth. One of Dr. Marquez’s most cherished moments is seeing the mothers she works with continue to do the work after therapy. She is always in awe of the mothers who go through her program and use the tools they are given to make their lives the best they can possibly be.
“That’s what’s admirable. When these moms continue to do the work outside of the therapy room or continue to do the work for themselves outside of our support groups and our workshops,” Dr. Marquez says. “That says to me that I have planted that seed and it is going to continue to flourish.”
mitúCares is a grant initiative through we are mitú empowering those helping our community in fundamental ways.
