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Today\u2019s show is an interesting look into how postpartum issues were dealt with, or not dealt with, in the past. We are looking from the perspective of a daughter who has been on a quest to discover the truth about her birth, her unusual childhood, and her mother\u2019s illness.\nNyna Giles is the author of The Bridesmaid\u2019s Daughter, a deeply personal memoir about family, mental health, and revisiting the past. We\u2019ll hear her perspective about growing up with a mother who had mental illness, and how she now knows that her mother had untreated postpartum psychosis. Back then, there was not much knowledge or support for mothers going through any perinatal crisis. We get to hear from Nyna\u2019s perspective what it was like to grow up in that environment and what she reflected on as an adult that she shares through writing The Bridesmaid\u2019s Daughter. Nyna is the youngest daughter of Carolyn Scott Reybold, a Ford model best known as one of Grace Kelly\u2019s bridesmaids. Nyna has worked with leading media organizations and is the COO of Giles Communications. She\u2019s an advocate for the mentally ill, traveling the globe to share her story, revealing the challenges brought on by her mother\u2019s untreated mental illness and her own lost childhood and education. Nyna is a board member of NAMI Westchester and serves on the NAMI New York State Legislative Committee. She is also a volunteer with Postpartum Resource Center of NY. She lives in Westchester with her husband and has three children and three stepchildren.\nShow Highlights:\n\nHow the book tells the story of Nyna\u2019s mother\u2019s untreated mental illness\n\nA summary of her mother\u2019s glamorous life as a successful model in the 1940\u2019s and 1950\u2019s and best friend to Grace Kelly\n\nHow her mother married, built a dream house on Long Island, and gave up her career to become a full-time mother to Nyna\u2019s two older sisters\n\nHow Nyna\u2019s birth was traumatic because she was almost 11 lbs.! Her mother had to have her third C-section and a hysterectomy\n\nHow Nyna\u2019s father had an affair while she was an infant, and her mother had no family close by and no support\n\nWhy Nyna had a lack of formal education, no friendships, and was trapped with her mother in a cycle of dysfunction\n\nThe only diagnosis her mother ever received was paranoid schizophrenia in her 50\u2019s\n\nHow the change was evident in Nyna\u2019s mom in pictures before and after Nyna\u2019s birth\n\nAs a child, Nyna never felt connected to or safe with her mom---even though she was with her all the time\n\nNyna\u2019s social anxiety as a teenager, and why she left home at age 14\n\nWhy mental illness was a topic that no one talked about back then\n\nNow Nyna\u2019s father started staying away from home because he didn\u2019t want to deal with his wife and her mental illness\n\nHow Nyna\u2019s mom gave away all her money and became homeless\n\nWhy Nyna has to balance and limit the pain she feels from the past\n\nNyna\u2019s transition to motherhood with her three children\n\nWhy Nyna felt compelled to get her school records\n\nWhat Nyna learned through her discovery in understanding her birth and what really happened to her mother\n\nThe revelation Nyna learned about the sexual abuse of her mother by her stepfather\n\nHow we can each help with mental health by engaging in real conversations\n\nResources Mentioned:\nFind out more about the book and Nyna:\xa0The Bridesmaid's Daughter\nFacebook: Nyna Giles Author\nTwitter: Nyna Giles\nInstagram: Nyna Giles Author