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Even though there is much variation in the stories that women share here on the podcast, it\u2019s amazing how many similarities they share. In today\u2019s conversation, like so many others, we see a commonality in both the suffering, the isolation, and the path to healing.\nLeila Tualla is an author and poet. She journaled her bouts with pregnancy anxiety, postpartum depression, and preeclampsia in a memoir titled Storm of Hope: God, Preeclampsia, Depression and Me, as a way of healing.\nLeila is a mental health advocate and is part of 2020 Mom as a Mom Ambassador. She is currently volunteering as a peer support provider for organizations such as International Association of Premenstrual Disorders (IAPMD) and as a mentor for Postpartum Support International (PSI).\nShe hopes that by sharing her maternal mental health and birth stories that moms know they are not alone in their postpartum and premenstrual dysphoric disorder journeys.\nShow Highlights:\n\nHow Leila was diagnosed with preeclampsia during her first pregnancy in 2012--and she experienced anxiety over what to expect next\n\nHow her daughter was born at 31 weeks and spent 46 days in the NICU\n\nLeila\u2019s desperate fears during her pregnancy anxiety with her second pregnancy--and how the anxiety developed into postpartum depression later on\n\nAs a counselor, Leila noticed the signs in herself but wondered why the postpartum pamphlets don\u2019t tell the whole story\n\nHow her son was born at 34 weeks and spent 11 days in the NICU\n\nHow Leila\u2019s boss spoke up and encouraged her to get help at six months postpartum\n\nHow Leila found Postpartum Support International (PSI) and began writing to tell her story\n\nWhy Leila wrote her book\n\nHow her faith and writing helped her heal through anxiety, postpartum depression, and two NICU experiences\n\nHow Leila\u2019s experiences were isolating until she started speaking up\n\nHow Asian cultural expectations didn\u2019t help Leila and made her feel like she should pick herself up and move forward\n\nWhat it was like to start to talk about her experiences and share her story\n\nWhy Leila is proud of where she\u2019s been and where she is today\n\nWhat Leila\u2019s healing process was like when she found support for premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PPMD)\n\nResources:\nWebsite and Social Media links:\nLeila Tualla\nFacebook: LeilaTuallaM\nTwitter: Leila Tualla\nInstagram: An_Anxious_Believer\n Storm of Hope: God, Preeclampsia, Depression and Me by Leila Tualla