Claire Zlobin recalls her experience with PPD as a 27-year-old mother. She feels lucky that breastfeeding challenges brought her to a publichealth nurse, with whom she had an opportunity to also chat about the anxiety, invasive thoughts and other feelings she was having — feelings the nurse quickly recognized as symptoms of PPD. With a personal understanding of the struggles facing families affected by PPD, Zlobin founded Life With a Baby, a maternal mental-health organization and support group that facilitates community events, runs workshops and seminars for moms and dads and connects people to group and individual mental-health counselling. As part of their advocacy work, the organization is gathering insights on workplace parental leave from employees, employers and health benefits experts, with plans to release its findings in the coming months.

What was your experience with PPD?

I loved my daughter. I bonded with her. Having a baby was exactly what I wanted, and it was supposed to be the most joyful, happiest time of my life, but I found myself having a lot of intrusive thoughts. I worried that I would fall down the stairs and hurt her; I wouldn’t cook because I worried that boiling water would splash onto her, even if she was in the living room; I worried that I’d be walking alone with her and that someone would come out of the bushes, take her out of her stroller and run away with her.

The intrusive thoughts were debilitating — it was exhausting. I coped by going through the motions of doing all the things you’re supposed to do as a mom, but it was like I was trying to pretend that I felt normal. And I started compensating for the anxieties I’d developed — for example, moving everything I needed downstairs when my husband went to work so I wouldn’t have to use the stairs during the day while I was alone with her.

What prompted you to seek help?

When the public-health nurse suggested I might have PPD, I spoke to my doctor, who confirmed the diagnosis. I recognized that my situation was so far from my reality of just a few months earlier, and I really wanted to fix it. I started therapy and worked with a great therapist for two whole years.

What challenges do employees who experience PPD face returning to work?

While I didn’t return to work myself, I consistently hear from other moms who say they feel unsupported when they do. Many describe returning to workplaces that expect them to be “back to normal,” with little acknowledgement of the mental and emotional toll of PPD. There’s a real fear of speaking up — of being seen as less capable, seen as less committed or even at risk professionally if they ask for help. On top of that, many benefits plans don’t provide adequate coverage for treatment and therapies, or the process is so limited and complex that it becomes another source of stress. The message many moms receive, unintentionally, is that their mental health is secondary — when it’s foundational to their ability to show up at work and at home.

How can employers better support employees with PPD?

Raising internal awareness of PPD and reducing the associated stigma is one of the most impactful steps employers can take, and it starts with training managers to have nonjudgmental conversations when an employee discloses a mental-health concern and guiding them toward available benefits and supports. It’s all about embedding maternal mental health into broader workplace mental-health strategies, so that it’s normalized and not treated as a niche or personal issue.

It’s equally important for employers to help ensure that health and drug plans offer comprehensive mentalhealth benefits that are aligned with emerging research and provide sufficient and timely coverage for therapy and counselling to meet clinical needs.

Policies should be flexible, not one-size-fits-all. Reviewing return-towork, parental leave and accommodation policies through a mental-health lens helps create psychologically safe transitions back to work, recognizing that recovery timelines vary.

Finally, employers can reduce barriers by making mental-health support easy to access, with clear pathways to care, simple benefits navigation and proactive communication. When support is visible, flexible and accessible, employees are far more likely to seek help early — benefiting the individual and the organization.

What advice would you give to anyone experiencing PPD symptoms?

Remember PPD is an illness, it’s not your fault and you’re not alone. Ask for help sooner than you think you should and accept offers of help. Speak to your doctor until you get the support you feel you need. If it doesn’t feel normal for you, keep going back and advocating for yourself. Access the support your employer offers and, if they don’t offer support, ask for it. Rest as much as you can. Know that healing is not linear, so you’ll go up and down and that’s okay. And remind yourself that this period is going to be really difficult, but you will get through it.

What final thoughts would you like to share with employers about PPD?

It’s essential for employers to understand PPD isn’t a weakness. It’s a medical condition, with symptoms along a spectrum, that can affect anyone, including capable, highperforming people. And there’s a ripple effect. Persistent PPD can affect bonding between mother and baby, which affects the baby’s sleep, feeding and long-term development and is linked to a higher risk of psychological difficulties, anxiety and depression later in life. PPD can also decrease marital satisfaction, increase separation rates and boost stress, anxiety and depression in partners. All of that said, with treatment, PPD can get better. But this requires investing in maternal mental health to improve long-term health outcomes for mothers, children and families, as well as reducing costs for employers and society at large.