‘I just wanted to help other people’: New non-profit aims to improve maternal mental health in N.S.

Crystal Garrett chats with a registered nurse who founded a non-profit organization to support maternal mental health in Nova Scotia.

A new non-profit organization in Nova Scotia wants to offer more maternal mental health support in the province.

The Lavender Village Society launched in February. It was created by Marissa Donovan, a registered nurse and mother from Springhill, N.S., who founded the non-profit after she experienced her own postpartum mental health issues.

“I’m a nurse, and it’s really apparent with caring for people from before birth to end of life, how much of an impact your mother’s mental health really has on you for life,” explains Donovan. “I had my own struggles with postpartum mental health, and I just wanted to help other people.”

In Nova Scotia, a 2018/2019 Statistics Canada survey found that 31 per cent of mothers reported feelings consistent with postpartum depression or an anxiety disorder. The percentage was higher in Nova Scotia than the national average of 23 per cent.

Donovan says that help includes offering virtual and physical peer support and providing care packages tailored to each applicant.

“Any pregnant, postpartum, or women who are struggling with fertility, and who have up to school age children,” says Donovan. “If you’re struggling with your mental health, or if you’re admitted to hospital for instance, and patients of the Reproductive Mental Health program the IWK… any of those people who reach out to us, we provide them with peer support and a care package based on their needs.”

The non-profit has a loftier goal. Donovan wants to create a Mother Baby Care, or MBC, unit in Nova Scotia. An MBC unit keeps moms and babies together in the same room, and are cared for by the same nurse, in a combined care model. Since 2017, the B.C. Women’s Hospital & Health Centre in Vancouver has offered the care through their Neonatal program. According to a press release from B.C.’s Provincial Health Services Authority, MBC units promote bonding and reduce stress.

“It’s the first centre in North America that treats postpartum mothers and their babies in the same place, so there’s no separation,” adds Donovan. “We really want that for Nova Scotia. It’s better for everyone.”

Donovan would like to see such a centre named after Kristen Beaton. Beaton, a VON health-care worker, was pregnant with her second child when she was killed during the N.S. mass shooting in April 2020.

“We really wanted to choose a name that would resonate with a lot of people, and mean a lot to everyone,” says Donovan. “We, and her family, really want people to remember her legacy and how kind and compassionate she was as a health-care worker and a mother.”

They’re hosting their first Lavender Gala for Maternal Health at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish on September 13. Money raised will go towards the construction of the Kristen and Baby Beaton Centre for Maternal Health.

“Tickets aren’t up for sale yet, but there will be a dinner. It will be a fun night of entertainment and learning about different resources and raising money for maternal health.”

Donovan says anyone looking for maternal health support can reach out to the Lavender Village Society through their website.