Shame resilience & Frida mom commercial

The Frida mom commercial stirs up so much emotion in us! To be honest, I can’t even watch it without tearing up. It depicts a very real experience for so many women. I also feel angry and a bit hopeless that this part of women’s lives will continue to be hidden in our society.

How does this kind of rejection from mainstream media negatively affect women’s mental health on an individual level? It provides us with messages that even medically “normal” postpartum recovery is too provocative and too intense amidst a sea of graphic and violent content on television. We are bombarded from a young age with messages that women have something to hide or feel embarrassed about when it comes to periods, birth, and postpartum recovery. This can lead us to feeling shame about these experiences.

Brené Brown says “Shame is the most powerful, master emotion. It's the fear that we're not good enough. Because true belonging only happens when we present our authentic, imperfect selves to the world, our sense of belonging can never be greater than our level of self-acceptance.”

What can we do about the shame that bubbles up during the perinatal process? Shame resilience is key. Brené encourages us to: 1) recognize the things that trigger shame, 2) understand where and why the shame is coming from, and 3) reach out and telling our story to someone we trust.

For more on this: https://www.habitsforwellbeing.com/shame-resilience-theory/