TOGETHER FOR MAMA

A girl and her family navigate her mother’s struggle with postpartum depression.

From the minute Baby Maya arrives home, Asha knows she is going to be the best big sister. With Baby Maya’s funny sneezes and kissable toes, loving her is easy. Still, Mama doesn’t seem to share Asha’s joy. Formerly active, silly Mama now stays in her room, crying. Pencil and digital drawings sensitively capture Mama’s isolation and hint at other ways that the new arrival has complicated family dynamics; a basket of laundry and piles of unwashed dishes can be seen in the background. In bright, warm spreads, Asha dotes on Baby Maya (and her deliciously chubby thighs). Mama is absent; she hides in drab clothes, eyes dark with worry and exhaustion. Then, a breaking point. Mama tells Papa, “I can’t do this.” Papa has been doing his best to help, but he recognizes that it’s time for reinforcements. The next morning, Dadi and Nani, Asha’s grandmothers, arrive. With confident smiles, the grandmothers take charge, sending Papa on a walk, telling Mama to take a relaxing bath, and pulling the sisters into their laps. Slowly, with help from everyone, Mama starts to seem like herself again. As Makhijani observes in an author’s note, PPD is common, but many shy from talking about it. In this necessary, child-centered story, PPD is accurately depicted as treatable, Mama is supported without shame, and the whole family shares in Baby Maya’s care. Asha and her family are of South Asian descent.

Realistic yet tenderly optimistic.