Dear Friends,

I hope you can join me in supporting a really special mom this season, Lisa Roth. I was lucky to meet Lisa as part of our Mind the Gap Massachusetts Coalition advocacy in support of legislation protecting moms with acute perinatal mental health concerns in the criminal justice system (An Act relative to the well-being of new mothers and infants, H.1924/S.1171). At the bill’s hearing, Lisa shared her harrowing experience with postpartum psychosis – a severe but temporary, treatable mental illness – and her journey to recovery. For Lisa, the most painful part of postpartum psychosis was losing custody of her son not only temporarily during her illness, but for three years afterwards. As Lisa testified:

[Family members] took him into temporary guardianship instead of helping me. They insist to this day that was help and support. It was trauma and night terrors. I would wake up at night screaming my baby’s name. Being away from my infant only made the psychosis symptoms worse and worse. What should have taken weeks took almost a year to treat in the absence of meaningful support and assistance.

My son was 3 by the time I jumped through the legal system’s hoops and brought him home. I have full custody, but I am still dealing with the traumatic aftermath by virtue of continued legal proceedings.

Postpartum psychosis robbed me of the life I was so excited to have with my baby. Instead, I was separated from my infant and expected to heal in spite of the trauma I was accruing daily. I missed hundreds of nights of singing my baby to sleep and seeing his shining face in the morning; being there for every sniffle or cough. I would have given anything for a sleepless night with my baby over a full night's sleep alone.

Lisa has been healthy and well for years now, and is a loving, fun, stable mom to her beautiful, cheerful, inquisitive son, Brennan, 7. She’s using her lived experience to support other moms as a Perinatal Mental Health-Certified Peer Specialist and Recovery Coach at Riverside Community Care, and as a member of Postpartum Support International 's Postpartum Psychosis Task Force .

But although she finally has sole custody, Lisa is facing a new legal battle for Brennan’s safety and well-being. Brennan is being physically and verbally abused during visits with family members, but it’s been nearly impossible to terminate visitation because Lisa’s prior mental health conditions are being used against her in court. With good legal representation, Lisa can prove that the safest, best place for Brennan is at home with her, all the time. Unfortunately, working as a Peer Specialist means Lisa makes too much to qualify for public legal services, but not enough to cover the cost of the representation she needs.

Lisa became ill with postpartum psychosis through no fault of her own. She is a beautiful mother who is doing everything in her power to create a loving, safe home for her son, but she needs our help. I hope you can support my GoFundMe to help with Lisa’s legal bills. Thank you in advance for your generosity!