Postpartum Passages
By Laura Young
Childbirth, and the feelings experienced with the birth of a new baby, are often the most memorable a mother can experience. And while some new mothers easily adjust to their new role, for others the experience can be overwhelming.
To help moms ease into the transition that a newborn brings, Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital has developed a postpartum support group. Moms are invited to share their experiences and concerns, or just listen, during discussions on the emotional adjustments experienced during pregnancy, birth and the first year postpartum. The support group is facilitated by trained specialists who understand the enormous changes and challenges that this transition can bring.
The Postpartum Passages support group will meet on Tuesdays at 12:30 p.m. in Henry Mayo’s Foundation Building, Room #2, 23871 McBean Parkway, Valencia. Cost is $10 per person.
Henry Mayo has also created a resource line for new moms needing advice or someone to talk to about their concerns. The resource line is answered by trained specialists. To contact the resource line or to learn more about the postpartum support group, please call (661) 200-BABY.
Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital is a 221-bed not-for-profit acute care hospital serving the Santa Clarita Valley since 1975. Services include trauma, emergency, intensive care, maternity, surgery, nursing, wound care, behavioral health, and acute rehab, as well as cancer, cardiology, imaging, lab, digestive, respiratory services and physical and occupational therapies. Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital is located at 23845 McBean Parkway, Valencia, CA 91355-2083. For more information, visit www.henrymayo.com or call 661-253-8000.
Getting Through Grief
By Jeff Zhorne
“I’m sure I have unfinished business in many of my relationships, but I would rather just let sleeping dogs lie.”
Many people feel this way when it comes to loss, trauma and unresolved grief events from the past. However, the heart has a logic all its own, something the brain doesn’t know about. We eventually wind up with our heads and our hearts in two different places, like many people suffering the pain of loss. Unresolved loss is cumulatively negative and over time eats away at our aliveness and spontaneity.
Yet, instead of working through grief events such as death of a loved one, divorce, separation, breakup or other losses, many people try to bury their pain or numb themselves with drugs, sex, alcohol or other short-term pain relievers.
Myth: Just give it time.
I ask people who have experienced a loss more than 25 years ago, “If ‘it just takes time’ were true, wouldn’t 25 years be enough?” And, of course, it’s not. The buried pain of unresolved loss is very real, has energy and doesn’t go away on its own.
One of the most common symptoms of unresolved grief issues is isolation. We pop in a DVD and order out, so we don’t have to see anybody. From earliest childhood we learn to hide our feelings. It’s like running a race with 500 pounds on your neck. Then our lives aren’t the happy, joy-filled experiences we had always envisioned.
“Finish the unfinished emotional pain” and end the isolation and loneliness. Recovery starts by freely expressing all the thoughts and emotions connected with loss. Maybe it’s regret, or grieving the loss of unrealized hopes, dreams and expectations.
Individuals who want more than temporary pain relief, to expand their lives and relationships, should contact The Grief Program, which provides a step-by-step method for completing incomplete loss issues and moving beyond to a fuller life: (661) 733-0692.
Jeff Zhorne suffered the loss of his two young children in an auto accident 18 years ago. Through the pain, he made discoveries about the process of completion and emotional healing, so he launched The Grief Program.
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