Why the Blue Dot Matters: A Conversation on Maternal Mental Health with Katie Crenshaw

Perinatal mental health affects countless families, yet stigma and lack of awareness often prevent parents from seeking the support they need. In this episode of the Ask the Doulas Podcast, Kristin Revere sits down with Katie Crenshaw, Brand and Integrated Marketing Manager at Postpartum Support International and Social Media Manager for The Blue Dot Project.

Katie shares how The Blue Dot Project has become a powerful symbol of awareness, advocacy, and hope for families navigating perinatal mood and anxiety disorders. She discusses the importance of storytelling in reducing stigma, how communities can better support parents during pregnancy and postpartum, and the role birth workers play in recognizing, validating, and connecting families with resources.

Whether you're a parent, doula, childbirth educator, healthcare professional, or advocate, this conversation highlights actionable ways to support maternal mental health and become part of a movement that reminds families they are never alone.

In This Episode, You'll Learn:

•  What The Blue Dot Project is and how it began 
•  Why perinatal mental health awareness matters 
•  The impact of stigma on seeking support 
•  How storytelling helps families feel seen and understood 
•  Ways birth workers can support clients experiencing mental health challenges 
•  Resources available through Postpartum Support International 
•  How listeners can get involved in the movement for maternal mental health awareness 

This episode is sponsored by Cozy Earth. Use the code GOLDCOAST to receive a discount of up to 20 percent off.

Subscribe to our newsletter, check out Kristin Revere’s birth and baby book, and see more about our doula services & online courses below:

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Transcript

Perinatal mental health affects countless families, yet stigma and lack of awareness often prevent parents from seeking the support they need.  In this episode of the Ask the Doulas Podcast, Kristin Revere sits down with Katie Crenshaw, Brand and Integrated Marketing Manager at Postpartum Support International and Social Media Manager for The Blue Dot Project.

Katie shares how The Blue Dot Project has become a powerful symbol of awareness, advocacy, and hope for families navigating perinatal mood and anxiety disorders.  She discusses the importance of storytelling in reducing stigma, how communities can better support parents during pregnancy and postpartum, and the role birth workers play in recognizing, validating, and connecting families with resources.

Whether you're a parent, doula, childbirth educator, healthcare professional, or advocate, this conversation highlights actionable ways to support maternal mental health and become part of a movement that reminds families they are never alone.

In this episode, you'll learn:

•  What The Blue Dot Project is and how it began 
•  Why perinatal mental health awareness matters 
•  The impact of stigma on seeking support 
•  How storytelling helps families feel seen and understood 
•  Ways birth workers can support clients experiencing mental health challenges 
•  Resources available through Postpartum Support International 
•  How listeners can get involved in the movement for maternal mental health awareness 

This episode is sponsored by Cozy Earth.  Use the code GOLDCOAST to receive a discount of up to 20 percent off.

Hello, hello!  This is Kristin Revere with Ask the Doulas, and I am thrilled to welcome Katie Crenshaw to the podcast.  She is many things, but today we’re talking about her role as brand and integrated marketing manager at Postpartum Support International, also known as PSI.  Katie Crenshaw’s path is so fascinating in the perinatal mental health advocacy world.

For many families in the delivery room, Katie’s story is so similar.  After more than a decade as a medical assistant in labor and delivery, and as a DONA certified doula and childbirth educator, Katie understands firsthand what new parents face.  Now a marketing leader at Postpartum Support International, she brings that same conviction to PSI’s Global Perinatal Mental Health Awareness Initiative.  A public speaker and award-winning content creator, Katie’s work on maternal mental health has gone viral across platforms.  She is based near Atlanta, Georgia, where she lives with her three children.  Welcome, Katie! 

Hi!  I’m so happy to be here! 

We first connected when I attended your workshop on mental health, especially perinatal mental health, at the Mom 2.0 conference.  I’m so thrilled to have you on the podcast because it was so informative to get into the advocacy role.  I appreciate the work you’re doing and can’t wait to hear more about the Blue Dot movement in PSI. 

Thank you!  Yeah, I love Mom 2.0.  It’s such a great conference.  It’s so good to meet a variety of people that are talking to moms in different ways between journalists and influencers and artists.  It’s just an awesome conference. 

It is my favorite conference to go to.  So tell us about the Blue Dot movement. 

The Blue Dot Project was a project that was started years ago.  They eventually were part of 2020 Mom, a different nonprofit, and then 2020 Mom moved more into a policy-based zone, so they’re now the Maternal Policy Center for Maternal Mental Health  The Blue Dot Project went over to PSI.  I had been doing a lot of advocacy with the Blue Dot Project when they were part of 2020 Mom.  I was the spokesperson in 2020 for the Blue Dot Project.  As I moved out of being a full time content creator and wanting to go in the direction of marketing, I started out part time and got to jump right into working with the Blue Dot Project as it kind of has merged from its own program to more of a global evergreen awareness campaign. 

My job has been to integrate that into all the other programs and kind of connect all the dots, if you will. 

It’s perfect from a marketing standpoint, and I love what you’re doing on social media with sharing real stories that are relatable to families and also something that birth professionals can learn from.  There are so many resources in PSI.  I’m constantly referencing your directory for different virtual and in-person support options.  I love that there is support for dads, and there is so much education for those of us in the birth and baby field to take additional trainings and get involved in PSI groups and advocate.  So whether our listeners are professionals in this space or expecting families. 

The whole thing with maternal mental health, perinatal mental health, is we can’t leave it only on the moms and the birthing people to know exactly what to do and how to help themselves.  There’s a ton of people that come in contact and are available to support new parents that can really be influential if they’re equipped with the right resources.  Bringing more awareness to the Blue Dot as a symbol puts it out there more because we do have a lot between what we offer for professionals and then also for health seekers. 

And there’s a fantastic hotline that I see is in blue, as well.  So connecting the dot to call if someone is struggling and needs to be connected to resources.  You don’t need to send a message on social media or email.  There’s a direct phone line which is rare to have that access at any time of day, no matter where you live. 

It’s confidential, it’s free, and you don’t have to have a diagnosis.  Sometimes people ask, do I already need to know what’s wrong.  And beyond that, once you’ve called the help line, we have support coordinators that connect people to resources.  We also have a peer mentor program.  We just have a lot available, and that should be taken advantage of. 

I agree.  So are you able to share a story through the Blue Dot program of a family and as part of the social media posts that you’re doing? 

Everybody that works at PSI has lived experience.  So many people who have used PSI services have wound up volunteering or somehow working with PSI and the causes because it’s just so important.  A lot of the people who go to our conference are help seekers turned advocates turned PSI volunteers.  It’s definitely powerful.  It’s my goal coming into this position.  I’ve only been in this specific position – I have a lot of big dreams, but one of them is to get more stories front and center of help seekers and exactly what programs and services helped them.  “This is what I used, and this is what it did for me.”  Diversity is very important to us.  We have the Alliance for People of Color as a program.  We have several services in Espanol and access to other languages for certain things.  We celebrate all families and all birthing people.  And we have such a variety of virtual online support groups.  No matter who you are and what your journey is, there is probably a specific niche of support that we can offer. 

I agree, and I love that you also have some support groups for people who are working nights or up in the middle of the night, those parents, and that is something that is also unique.  Doulas can get some education as they’re up and learn more about how to support each family’s needs.  But just scrolling through your social media more recently, you’ve address how common birth trauma is, for example, and as a birth doula, I certainly help my clients process trauma that they’ve experienced, and I do agree that it isn’t discussed enough and something that may not appear traumatic to me as a doula may still be traumatic for my client and her individual lived experience. 

We have a PMHC certification that a lot of birth professionals receive.  It’s a legit certification, and we encourage anybody who might be talking to moms, new parents anywhere in the perinatal period, to have that extra training.  It’s so helpful.  And also it gives parents the confidence that they can trust who they’re talking to.  It’s a sensitive time.  There’s a lot of fears around it, and there’s still a lot of stigma.  So it’s exciting that we’re able to take that layer of training for people.  

So as far as families, are you still accepting stories?  How do our listeners submit a story? 

The best way right now – we have some things in flux, but I can send you the link where you can submit your story to PSI.  It’s kind of a form, and it will ask all the relevant questions. 

Excellent!  So Katie, how has your work as a doula and working as a medical assistant in labor and delivery impacted your work in the perinatal mental health field? 

Well, it’s funny because obviously when I first became a doula, I mean, I had one child, and he was three.  And I had just started to kind of address my own mental health.  I just knew that I was really drawn to moms in their most vulnerable periods of time.  And being a doula is significant for that and super fulfilling.  I love to be supportive, and just getting to see up close, there is no more vulnerable position, probably.  Labor and delivery is so vulnerable, and people are at their most primal, raw selves.  And you can see how much support is needed and missing culturally.  As I had more children and more struggles with perinatal mental health, I just kept feeling like this is all integrated, and it all needs to be more of one big conversation. 

To have that lived experience as a mom and having worked in the hospital system as a birth worker and then getting involved in all of the advocacy before joining PSI, I feel like there’s so many different layers of understanding and support that someone who is only a researcher or who works in the nonprofit sector may not be able to provide.  So I love how you’re connecting the dots in so many ways. 

As far as your tips for our listeners, Katie, what would you suggest that our listeners who are expecting do to get familiar with not only the Blue Dot but everything that PSI has to offer them? 

The best thing you can do is go to postpartum.net.  It’s a little less all at once.  Postpartum.net/bluedot is more help seeker facing.  It’s more parent facing.  It’s a newer page that we have and it will take you anywhere you need to go.  There’s just so many different ways you can be supported.  And if it’s something where you’re a professional and you’re interested in additional training, we have a lot of different avenues on the website for professionals.  Also on social media, we’re at Postpartum Support International and also Blue Dot PSI.  And if you can’t figure out what you need, just shoot us a message and somebody will help you. 

Excellent!  Any final words of wisdom to birth and baby professionals listening? 

Anybody sharing your story still really matters and can save lives, so continue to tell your own story wherever you are and in whatever circles you’re in.  Professionals like doulas and birth educators and lactation consultants, anybody who is working with people in the perinatal period, just remembering that even though it’s less talked about, perinatal mental health conditions are the number one complication of pregnancy and childbirth, and we still need to be paying attention.  It’s important to be properly trained and have resources on hand.  When I say screening, keeping an eye on which clients might be at higher risk. 

Excellent advice.  Thank you so much, Katie!  I appreciate the work that you’re doing, and we will have to have you on again! 

IMPORTANT LINKS

Postpartum Support International 

Blue Dot Project 

Birth and postpartum support from Gold Coast Doulas

Becoming A Mother course

Buy our book, Supported