Understanding the New PPD Drug and a Call to Action to Elevate Maternal Healthcare

In this episode:

Read the FDA Safety Info for Zurzuvae

Read the transcript of this episode:

Depression, anxiety, and autoimmune symptoms after birth is not how it’s supposed to be. There is a much better way, and I’m here to show you how to do just that.
Hey, my friend, I’m Maranda Bower, a mother to four kids and a biology student turned scientist, obsessed with changing the world through postpartum care.
Join us as we talk to mothers and the providers who serve them and getting evidence-based information that actually supports the mind, body and soul in the years after birth.

Hello, my friends, welcome to the Postpartum University podcast, and I’m doing something that I have not ever done before here and I’m releasing an additional episode outside of our traditional schedule, and I’m speaking about something that is so incredibly important, and just very recently, we’ve had a new drug enter the postpartum scene that is specific for postpartum depression, and I’ve seen so much about this. I’ve done as much research as I possibly can with what’s available and I’m trying to have some important conversations and being silenced in the process, so I wanted to bring some more information to light. I wanted to have a serious talk, I wanted to share some unfiltered facts, some honest questions, and some best care options, and I went live on Instagram to share this information and I’m bringing you that recording right here, so I will tell you deep breaths. There’s some moments in there when I was crying myself. There is a lot of information that’s being shared here and, in the grand scheme of things, there’s just so much more to know. So I invite you to have this serious conversation and I invite you to Instagram to post your questions, to learn alongside us, to grow alongside us. And I actually share in this recording that you’re going to listen to right now is that if you DM me, if you message me on Instagram, I can send you the direct insert link, so the FDA insert, for this specific drug, so that you can read it yourself, so you can learn about it some more and do your own research, which I highly recommend. So, anyway, I’m going to jump off and let you listen into this recording. Big, big hugs, reach out for support, know that I am here for you and I want to hear all the things about your thoughts and your feelings about this. So connect in with us on Instagram, which you can do at instagram.com/postpartumuniversity. Let’s hear it.

I have some really important things that I feel is so necessary to say, and I have been seeing all this new information about this latest postpartum depression drug that’s coming out. There’s lots of excitement. This is great for postpartum women, for postpartum in general. It’s an advancement. We’re making headway in women’s health and we finally have options. And I’ve really dived deep into this conversation and the research these last few days and I’ve talked with many colleagues in the field and honestly, it’s been really challenging and I’ll explain more of that in a minute. But what I will say is that I’m not going to be silenced on this topic. I want to share a little bit first with you about who I am and my background. I specialized in postpartum nutrition. I have specialized training in perinatal mental health. I run Postpartum University, which is a massive company that supports postpartum professionals in over 35 different countries. We have multiple certifications and training programs. I literally teach medical providers like doctors, midwives, nutritionists, counselors, lactation consultants, and even coaches and doulas, and educators, and we’ve been doing this for over a decade. I started this work because of my own postpartum experiences that I’ve had. I have struggled with extreme postpartum depression and anxiety, debilitating like having to move in with my parents. I lost my partner, became a single mom. It was so painful and debilitating it could barely get out of bed. I would have anxiety. That was so difficult. I would have panic attacks because I would wake up from a dream of having monkeys coming down from the ceiling and stealing my baby. And then I would panic over it and I knew that it was not true. I knew that it wasn’t real but I couldn’t stop it. I couldn’t stop the panic and I would just completely shut down. I felt like I had no control over my body, and I’ve also experienced postpartum bipolar. I’ve got four kids. I’ve experienced quite a bit in maternal and mental health. I’ve also been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease. Over 30% of women in the postpartum period will develop an autoimmune disease. Nobody’s talking about that. Anyway, I’m sharing this to tell you that I know the journey deeply. I did my healing alone. I share that often too, and I also share that I never, ever recommended. There is help, there are support options today. Never do this journey alone. It is not necessary.

But the fact is we have a major epidemic right now. Suicide is the second leading cause of death after having a baby Women are. One out of three women will develop postpartum depression and anxiety. We are failing women, immensely failing women, and, the New York Times just recently came out with an article that’s also speaking about this drug and I’m going to talk about it in a little bit later but making it really clear that the significant epidemic problem is happening and that counseling is not helping. Therapy is not helping. There’s pills that are out there and available and they’re not helping. There is literally no specific doctor or care provider for women in postpartum. Okay, providers have little to no training in postpartum. That’s why I have Postpartum University, because of my own experiences and my doctor’s not knowing crap. If you want to know something about postpartum as a medical provider or as any provider, you have to go to a secondary learning center or a secondary learning facility or you have to do your own research. Y’all women are suffering immensely. They have no way out, literally no way out, and this is what we’re doing. We’re throwing pills at it. I’m going to talk a little bit more about that here in a second, but I was actually having some conversations earlier here. There was two yesterday that you may have seen. I was asking questions on PSI’s post that was celebrating this new drug and I was expressing my concerns. Again, I will get into momentarily and everything was deleted the concerns I had, the questions that other people had as well, and the concerns that they were having were completely silenced. I did a live with this incredible human yesterday and she had asked me to talk about this New York Times article that came out that really talked about the normalizing, the postpartum depression that’s just part of our world right now. It was talking about this drug and how a lot of this not all is tied to nutrition and postpartum and depletion. That’s what she had asked me to come and talk on and she deleted it. She deleted the video, the live that we did together. She said she lost followers, she felt that she couldn’t speak up. She wanted to lead with love and I respect her. I respect her choice immensely and at the same time, I am absolutely saddened by this that we cannot have a conversation about it, that we can’t speak about it, because doing so well, bringing awareness to these things will be shaming women. This is the most ridiculous thing that I have ever seen in my life and I want to be so overly clear in this. This is not about shaming moms. This is not about making them feel guilty for taking medication. I fully recognize there are times when medications may be the best choice, or sometimes the only choice. That’s what we’ve given women today. The only choice is here’s your pill. We should be respecting all women’s choices and needs, while also simultaneously sharing why this particular drug is not the answer, at least not the answer right now. I want to get into a little bit more with you about this, and so if you see my eyes start off to the side, no, it’s because that I actually have my computer here and I have pulled up a copy of this insert for this new drug. If you don’t have a copy of this, I can absolutely give you the link for it. Just follow us, make sure you follow me and then DM me, so that I just want to make sure that I get your DM and then I will send you the direct copy that comes straight from the FDA. This is the only information that we have on this drug at this very moment, but I’m going to kind of summarize a little bit of this for you, and I really truly do hope you DM me. I hope you or at least find the insert for this. I want you to read it for yourself, empower yourself, and be very, very aware of what’s transpiring here. So the name of this drug is Zurzuvae. Okay, and you take it once per day for two weeks only. Okay, it’s only a two-week drug. It’s not something that you have to take for a really long time or any time. Really, two weeks, you know, and it significantly reduces the symptoms of postpartum depression. Sometimes this reduction of symptoms happen so significantly at day three for many women and this is amazing this is never heard of before, and anyone who knows anything about pharmaceutical medications, specifically SSRIs, know that it takes an upwards of two plus weeks to feel the benefit of it, and that’s if you’re taking the right drug for what you need. Oftentimes there’s like I got to have a higher dose or a lower dose, or this drug didn’t work, and then I have to go find something else, and sometimes it takes months to literally find what works for your body or what reduces your symptoms, which is a better word of saying it. Okay, this drug has a black box warning for driving impairment. Okay, it impairs the central nervous system, causing severe drowsiness and sleepiness, so much so that many people have stated that it is recommended that, if you do take this drug for the two week period of time or any period of time that you may want to look at alternative care for your child or children and you’re going to have to take off work. There’s no way you’re going to be able to drive, let alone perform daily tasks. Okay, it’s also extremely toxic to baby and womb. So if one is pregnant it will cause major life altering defects, including death. It is not used to be, not to be used with breastfeeding at all. It increases thoughts of behaviors and thoughts and behaviors of suicide. So definitely increases suicidal ideation. And it’s all right here. This is all the facts. It’s right here on the paper. Again, happy to send that to you. This is lasting long-term effects. It is going to impact your brain and your nervous system and your hormones permanently. This insert says that the mechanism of action this is a direct quote. So mechanism of action of Zeranolone, which is the type of medication that is, the medication is the treatment of PPD is not fully understood. The mechanism of action in the treatment of PPD is not fully understood, meaning that the drug itself they do not know why it works. Okay, and when you don’t know why a drug works, then you have zero understanding of how it’s impacting your body over a long period of time or anytime whatsoever, and the fact that you are going to be done using this in two weeks and no longer need it. Okay, so it’s not leaving your system. It is completely altering your brain and your nervous system and your hormones completely permanently so that you don’t need the drug any longer. Any data that shows that once the drug leaves the body, it no longer has an impact on your body whatsoever? This is the whole idea, and somebody had shared this with me as an argument for the drug, and I’m absolutely questioning that, because if it had no longer any lasting impact on the body whatsoever, then the continuation of the drug would be necessary in order to continue receiving the benefits, ie the reduced symptoms of postpartum depression.

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It also states right here in the handout here is that this drug quote unquote does not directly affect mono-emminaric systems. Okay, I would like to question that, as in what does not directly affect mono-emminaric, does that mean it indirectly affects and mono-emminaric systems only refer and if you don’t know what this is, don’t worry about it whatsoever it refers to the small group of neurotransmitters. What about the other neurotransmitters? What about the gut health? Can we see it generally like? We know, based on this, that it generally causes major diarrhea, but it gives no explanation to why it didn’t study the impact of the gut. I’m assuming because it wasn’t in here whatsoever. Maybe they did, but they haven’t released that information. We don’t know, and we know how the gut deeply impacts the brain, right, which is a whole other conversation that we won’t be able to get into here. This drug is actually created by the same makers of Brexon Nolone. Okay, so that was the postpartum depression injection that we heard about. Maybe you’ve heard of it too. You can drop me in the comments and let me know if you’ve heard of this one. It came out in about 2019, if I remember correctly, and it cost over $20,000. So this is the same company, right? Their aim at creating this drug that was in pill form is to improve the bioavailability of the drug and therefore make it more easier for the body to work. However, the insert states that the bioavailability of this particular drug was not evaluated, so their statement is completely false as to why they created this drug. But anyway, for those people who were taking this drug and I see, Kay you’re sharing women were passing out. Yes, women were passing out from this drug and it was incredibly difficult. A lot of women said that it was not for them. There was lots of women who said it was so to each their own. But we know that it had some really big effects and we know this drug was released and approved and still to this day and I’m quoting this there’s no direct data that exists on the effects of Brexanolone after the completion of a 30-day follow-up period. There is no data on the effects of this drug after it’s completed, after 30 days. There’s no freaking data. There’s only questions here. There’s no long term studies on this whatsoever. We’re still playing this old record to that depression is like this chemical imbalance that is in your brain and it’s amazing to me. The biological reason for depression is inflammation. If your body is inflamed, it sends signals through symptoms like depression. Psychoneuro immunology okay, psychoneuro immunology has proven this over and over and over again. The direct source of depression has been found, but ignored repeatedly and we keep going back to blaming the brain and the chemicals and the hormones. If you have suffered from depression, you weren’t given the right tools and support your body needed and it remained in a state of high inflammation in the postpartum period specifically. Yes, hormones are in a state of fluctuation. They cause your body to process your environment differently. It causes your body to digest differently. It requires a drastically different approach to support. They are in a normal biological fluctuation. Your hormones are in a normal biological fluctuation in postpartum and they require help. We all know that we need support and we all know that support is not created equal. We are not here to blame women. We are not the root cause of this and we’re not giving women the tools they truly need to get to the root cause. Again, I get it. This is not shaming medications. It’s drawing to the important questions about your safety, particularly with this drug. Okay, and let’s be really honest and clear. We all know a pill will never solve the root cause. This is adding to the idea that a woman’s body is the problem, that there is nothing she can do about it and that feeling awful in motherhood is just the normal thing. Now Suck it up, deal with it. Here’s your pill. There were mamas in the PSI thread who were adamant that they had all the care and the support and it was their body that failed them, that they were just messed up, that they were imbalanced, and it just breaks my freaking heart. You did not fail. The system failed you. The postpartum body is this transition state. It’s not an imbalanced state. There’s a difference. And when we aren’t supported with nourishment, when we aren’t cared for, when we’re experiencing traumatic births that 30% in America, over and over and over again, of course, of course we’re going to have difficult postpartums. Of course we can’t, even we’re forced to go back to work. We don’t have any paid maternity leave. We have nothing. We have no support whatsoever. The system is failing us and we’re slapping a bandaid pill on it. You deserve so much better. You deserve better care. We’re the creator of life. We hold life, giving energy, in our womb. We’re fucking goddess and you are being treated like trash and this is not to be celebrated. We need to demand better. The health of a mother is the health of a country. Literally, that’s what we do. We look at the maternal mortality rate of a country and that determines the health of it, and we know the United States alone is less than 30. That means that 30 other countries are better than us, are healthier than us, that have less moms dying, and I get it. Right now we’re in a place where we feel like our only option is a pill, and this is the sad part, that our only option is this. This is all we got, and I’m trying to tell you that this is not the truth. Don’t fall for that, and if you need support, reach out for it. If it has to be a pill, do it, but get yourself in a place where you can get off that pill, where you can get better, where you can get healthy, where you can get to a point where you feel good in your body so we can start making some changes. Dang it. We’ve deserved to feel good and I will tell you. I will not be silenced. Please speak up. Do what is in your heart of hearts, what’s deep in your gut, ask yourself, read this first. I want you to read this again. DM me if you need a copy. I will send you the direct link for the FDA link for this. Read it, understand it and if you feel deep in your gut that this is not safe, that this is not a positive move in maternal mental health. Please speak it. Speak it up. I’m a researcher. I’m a writer by trade. I value science immensely, but I also strongly believe in intuition and our body’s intelligence, which is also a science, but often categorized separately. But I just feel so deeply that we cannot continue not expressing the truth here and telling people that we can’t do it or we can’t speak up or we can’t say anything because we’re shaming. This is not shaming. This is drawing the truth to the conversation. I am going to read the comments here. If you have specific questions for me, I would love to answer them as best I can, based on what we know about this drug, which I will tell you is not a lot. But I will do my best here. I’m going to go through and read your comments, definitely interested in your perspective on this. Thank you 100%. These studies on it were abysmal. Yes, I will tell you the studies too. They did animal studies first, which is very typical. Animals were dying. There’s several dogs that died taking this drug. All the researchers in one declare conflicts of interest. Yeah, the other didn’t meet the primary importance. It’s also really important to recognize that a lot of people dropped from this study and were not included in it. So they took one dose and said I can’t take any more. And then there was more people who dropped after the second dose that said no more. Yeah, the previous drug had to be administered in the hospital over 60 days. Sorry, 60 hours. Yes, cindy, thank you. Yes, maybe we need a campaign One going on right now where mom’s speaking out against predatory marketing formula companies. Oh, sign me up, absolutely, absolutely, okay. I really want to express my gratitude for allowing me to be here and sharing this information and, again, I’m going to continue speaking out. I want to continue learning about it. I feel again like there’s just so much that we don’t know. Somebody had asked me earlier and one of the threads that we were talking through and got deleted was well, how do you know that this causes long-term effects? You have no basis to back up your claim, and it’s well. Can you prove me otherwise? No, actually you can’t, because there’s no information on it whatsoever. There’s zero long-term studies. We have no idea what happens to a mom if she gets pregnant again and what if she suffers postpartum depression again. What effects will have? You know will be on her during that time? How will she feel? Will the drug be necessary? Is it something that cures lifetime issues? What’s going to happen to our menopause Right? What happens when we reach menopause and our hormones shift and change again? We know none of that. We know absolutely none of that. I’m going to go ahead and jump off here. I’m not seeing any more questions. Will this be saved and shareable? Yes, it will be, and I am planning on putting this on the postpartum university podcast as well. I don’t want this to be deleted in any way, shape, form or fashion. We know sometimes how social media is, and I already shared my story about how this is being silenced, and I just I encourage you to speak up, I encourage you to share, I encourage you to read the information that’s right here in front of us and really make the decisions for yourself. There’s better options. There is, I promise you, and if you’re a mom who’s experiencing this, I want to tell you that one, obviously you are not alone. And two, even if you have to take medications, don’t feel guilty, don’t feel shamed. There are other ways to support your body, and sometimes you need that, that support system, in place, and sometimes it’s not there, but I will tell you with my heart of hearts that this is not the option for you. This is not it. Yes, we are all in this together. Okay, thank you all so much for being here and to tuning in and listening. I’m gonna go ahead and upload this to Facebook. I’m sorry. Facebook Instagram. Please do share it, comment on it. The more you comment on this when it goes on the feed, the more people will see it and the more conversation that we can have, the more questions we can ask, the more answers we can receive. So, please, please, do that, please do that. Okay, I’m gonna jump off, give it a few minutes and let’s come back and meet in the comments. Thank you all. I’ll continue answering questions as best I can and again, dm me if you need anything, even if it’s. Where do I go to get better support? I’m here for you. I am so grateful you turned into the Postpartum University podcast. We’ve hoped you enjoyed this episode enough to leave us a quick review and, more importantly, I hope more than ever that you take what you’ve learned here, applied it to your own life and consider joining us in the Postpartum University membership. It’s a private space where mothers and providers learn the real truth and the real tools needed to heal in the years postpartum. You can learn more at wwwpostpartumu. That’s the letter U.com. We’ll see you next week.