29029 Everesting for Maternal Mental Health

On October 21 at 6AM, my husband and I will be taking on a particularly unique (and badass) challenge:

Accumulate 29,029 feet in elevation, the equivalent of Mt. Everest, in 36 hours at Stratton Mountain in Vermont.

Hike up the mountain, take the gondola down, repeat 17 times…finish by 6 PM the next day.

While the 29029 event has been on my bucket list for years, I was 8 months pregnant when it was time to sign up, and rightfully hesitant. At best, I’d be asking my 43-year-old newly not pregnant self to achieve peak fitness on zero sleep. At worst, all of the above plus battling the darkness of postpartum depression and anxiety like I did after having my first child.

I ended up winning TWO entries to 29029 in an Instagram contest, so the decision was made for me, I was doing it and Ben was too! And thankfully, this postpartum experience is the exact opposite of what I experienced the first time around…

The first time I was rocked to my core. I spent nearly two years suffering from postpartum depression and anxiety, wondering what was wrong with me because I wasn’t vibing with motherhood the way I thought I was supposed to. Furthermore, Ben and I didn’t have a village. We were in a new town with few friends nearby and basically no family to rely on. Thankfully, we were able to attract the perfect nanny very early on, who became our daughter’s Mom2, my best friend, and an integral part of our family which provided the safety, time and space I needed to heal my brain.

I cannot imagine how much harder my experience (and my family’s experience) would have been if I didn’t have access to perinatal mental health care, if I wasn’t able to afford consistent, reliable childcare, if I didn’t have a stable career…

Taking this challenge on, training for this event together, with an infant, a 5-year-old, and full-time jobs, during such a tender and demanding time of our life, has been hard but the privilege is not lost on us. Accordingly, by taking on 29029, we hope to do two things:

1. Raise money for two incredible organizations that are focused on increasing awareness, providing training to clinicians, and providing support and delivering resources to new mothers internationally and locally.

a. Postpartum Support International (https://www.postpartum.net/) – PSI’s mission is to promote awareness, prevention, and treatment of mental health issues related to childbearing in every country worldwide. PSI’s goal is that every woman and family worldwide will have access to information, social support, and informed professional care to deal with mental health issues related to childbearing. PSI is achieving this goal through advocacy, collaboration, and educating and training the professional community and the public.

b. Pentucket Moms Support (https://www.pentucketmoms.com/) – PMS’s mission is to increase awareness about perinatal mood and anxiety disorders, provide scholarships to local clinicians to receive PSI training and certification, and deliver resources directly to at-risk mothers in our community.

2. Keep the conversation going about the realities of motherhood. Each of the 17 ascents will be dedicated to normalizing the darker aspects of new motherhood. The less alone mothers feel in their experience, the more willing they will be to seek help.

Anger – Anxiety – Depression – Exhaustion – Fear – Grief – Guilt – Hopelessness – Irritability – Judgement – Loneliness – Overwhelm – Rage – Resentment – Sadness – Shame – Suicide

Thank you for your support and you can follow our last few weeks of training and the event on Instagram at @crushing_adulthood.

Love,

Sarah & Ben

**Community Action is the fiscal sponsor and will collect and disburse money to both organizations.