It’s not easy to ask for help if you think you’re experiencing postpartum depression. And it’s especially difficult when your OB keeps postponing your first postpartum checkup, which was the case for Jessica Porten—for four months. Once Porten did snag an appointment and begin to discuss her symptoms, however, the nurse practitioner did something unexpected: She called the cops.
Porten is sharing the traumatic incident on Facebook in order to raise awareness to fix what she’s calling a broken system.
“I had an OB appointment yesterday, my first since giving birth four months ago (because they kept cancelling my appointments), which is inhumane in my eyes,” Porten posted last week. “I went to the appointment alone with Kira. It was at 2:10, and I was not called back to a room until 3:15. A nurse practitioner comes in (one I don’t particularly care for) and I tell her everything my husband told them when he scheduled me the appointment a week ago. That I have postpartum depression that is manifesting in fits of anger, and I want to discuss my medication options. I tell them I have a very strong support system at home, so although I would never hurt myself or my baby, I’m having violent thoughts and I need medication and therapy to get through this. She rushed through my pelvic exam, barely spoke about medication, said she needed to talk to the doctor about my PPD, and left the room.
They called the f*cking cops on me.”
The next 10 hours were a complicated, messy ordeal. Porten had to wait an hour for the police to arrive, who ultimately had her drive herself to the ER since she had her baby with her in a car seat. She was assigned a security guard to keep tabs on her. Her belongings were locked up. And finally, at 10:45 p.m., a social worker met with Porten, who concluded she didn’t need to be put on psychiatric hold and could be discharged.
Not once did she meet with a doctor—not even before the cops were called to her OB’s office.
“I leave the ER at midnight, my spirit more broken than ever, no medication, no follow up appointment, never spoke to a doctor,” she says. “This was a 10-hour ordeal that I had to go through all while caring for my infant that I had with me. And that’s it. That’s what I got for telling my OB that I have PPD and I need help. I was treated like a criminal and then discharged with nothing but a stack of Xeroxed printouts with phone numbers on them.”
Porten’s post has been shared nearly 33,000 times. And while angry moms are encouraging her to sue, she wants to use her moment in the spotlight to do something else.
“The fact of the matter is, even if I was mentally unstable, suicidal, and unfit to parent (which I am not), the way the situation was handled is not helpful to people. Let’s do better Sacramento,” she says, opening up her post to donations for 2020 Mom , an advocacy group for maternal mental health in California.
Since one in seven women experience postpartum depression , it’s crucial that they’re able to discuss it with a receptive medical professional. And, as Porten points out, they should be able to expect fair and unbiased treatment.
“I may be marginalized as a woman, but I am white and heterosexual and hold privileges in these places,” she says. “I am scared for our mothers of color and our LGBTQ mothers who seek out help in these situations. Why was I let go, when so many others would have been put on a mandatory 72-hour psychiatric hold, and had their children taken away? Why do a disproportionate number of women of color who have PPD not receive the services they need, even when they initiate treatment?”
Porten will continue to advocate for change. Shortly after her post, she attended a rally at the California State Capitol in Sacramento, where 2020 Mom introduced a bill package based on the recommendations from the California Task Force on the Status of Maternal Mental Health Care.
style="color:var(--color-dark-gray600)">Please note: The Bump and the materials and information it contains are not intended to, and do not constitute, medical or other health advice or diagnosis and should not be used as such. You should always consult with a qualified physician or health professional about your specific circumstances.
