Aaisha Alvi is a postpartum psychosis awareness advocate and writer. She is the author of A Mom Like That: A Memoir of Postpartum Psychosis. Her book has received praise from reproductive mental health experts and organizations, including Postpartum Support International (PSI), Action on Postpartum Psychosis (APP), and Library Journal.
As a result of the extreme difficulty she experienced in accessing care for her PPP, her mission is to increase public and provider awareness of postpartum psychosis toward preventing unnecessary suffering and tragedy.
Aaisha frequently presents to various audiences on the misdiagnosis of postpartum psychosis. She is also an active volunteer with Postpartum Support International. Educational materials she has created about postpartum psychosis are featured in trainings delivered by PSI.
Feel free to follow along on her awareness efforts @aaishaalviwrites
Early motherhood is supposed to be joyous, but for Aaisha Alvi, those early days were ruined by terrifying, delusional thoughts about her baby and family. Far beyond the trials of breastfeeding and getting her baby to sleep, Aaisha’s experience was the antithesis of everything she had ever been told about motherhood.
When her second pregnancy ended in miscarriage, Aaisha’s psychosis returned. This time, however, she was blindsided by the unimaginable: voices urging her to stab her daughter and to harm innocent people. Aaisha felt evil, worthy of taking her own life. But each time she sought medical help, she was turned away.
With unflinching honesty, Aaisha takes readers beyond the vitriol and blame flung at women — particularly women of colour — suffering from postpartum psychosis. Her story is a clarion call to increase awareness of a condition that need never result in tragedy and to build support for those affected by it.
