We Feel Like We Have to Be Wonder Woman
Why is it so hard for women to ask for help?
Dr. Maria Montoro Edwards thinks it’s because we believe we have to be Wonder Woman. Michele and Liz sit down with their friend Dr. Maria Montoro Edwards, President and CEO of Maternal and Family Health Services. MFHS provides health care, nutrition, education and support to more than 100,000 women, men and children across 17 counties in eastern Pennsylvania.
Maria is the oldest of eight siblings, all with names starting with M, and she studied to be a freelance illustrator before discovering a knack for grant writing. She shares the secret she learned as a grant reviewer for the National Science Foundation: less is more. Get to the point.
Maria explains how MFHS grew from a 1971 family planning grant into the largest WIC provider in Pennsylvania. She walks through the circle of care in Scranton, a maternity medical home where a mom can get prenatal care, nutrition support, ultrasounds, dental care, behavioral health counseling and more under one roof, on a bus route. (Full disclosure: Michele was the architect.)
Maria talks about why the building opened debt-free, why preterm births among MFHS clients are dropping, and why so many families who qualify for WIC never sign up.
Then it gets harder. Maria serves on the Pennsylvania Maternal Mortality Review Committee, and she describes what it’s like to review the deaths of mothers and ask where the ball was dropped.
So often, she says, the missing piece is a warm handoff. She talks about the trauma many women don’t recognize as trauma, the stigma around postpartum depression, and why a single broken-down car can tip a hardworking family over the edge.
She also gets personal about single parenthood, how hormone replacement therapy lifted her out of a fog, and the advice she’d give her younger self.
In this episode you’ll learn:
- What Maternal and Family Health Services offers, from first period through menopause
- Why so many families who qualify for WIC never use it, and how to check if you qualify
- How putting care under one roof is helping lower preterm birth rates
- What the Pennsylvania Maternal Mortality Review Committee does, and the warm handoff that
- could save lives
- Why it’s okay to ask for help with postpartum depression and anxiety, and where to find it
- How MFHS offers confidential reproductive health services to young adults
- The grant-writing secret that also makes you a better leader: less is more
- Why delegating is a gift to your team, not a weakness
- How to quiet imposter syndrome by talking to yourself like a friend
Resources from this episode:
- Maternal and Family Health Services — https://mfhs.org/
- WIC eligibility calculator — https://www.fna.usda.gov/wic/eligibility-tool
- Circle of Care, Scranton — https://mfhs.org/locations/mfhs-circle-of-care/
- Nurse-Family Partnership — Link
- Healthy MOMS at The Wright Center — https://thewrightcenter.org/services/healthy-moms/
- Pennsylvania Maternal Mortality Review Committee — https://www.pa.gov/agencies/health/programs/maternal-health-and-infant-care/maternal-mortality/mmrc
- CASA of Luzerne County — https://luzernecasa.org/
- Volunteer with or donate to MFHS — https://luzernecasa.org/
- National Maternal Mental Health Hotline: 1-833-TLC-MAMA (1-833-852-6262)
Keep sparking
If this conversation resonated with you:
- Follow Spark Me wherever you listen to podcasts so you never miss an episode
- Share this episode with a new mom, or with the friend who never asks for help
- Leave a rating or review. It helps other women in their second act discover the show.
- Tag us and tell us: what would you say to your younger self?