Hello there! My name is Leila and I am a writer, a mama, and an advocate. I write mostly about faith, grief of what could have been, love, and of course, motherhood.
I am a preeclampsia and postpartum depression survivor. While I am years removed from those times, I still remember every little low and the darkness that surrounded me.
I advocate for maternal mental health and have spoken about my lived in experiences at panels, at hospitals, and to my Representatives in Congress. I can't promise it gets easier. But I can say that I am here with you and your experience is valid. So glad you found me.
I am a preeclampsia and postpartum depression survivor. While I am years removed from those times, I still remember every little low and the darkness that surrounded me.
I advocate for maternal mental health and have spoken about my lived in experiences at panels, at hospitals, and to my Representatives in Congress. I can't promise it gets easier. But I can say that I am here with you and your experience is valid. So glad you found me.
Poetry
I am a Preeclampsia survivor. In 2015, after swearing off that I would never go through another pregnancy, NICU stay, premature baby....God blessed us with a little man. I still ended up with Preeclampsia. I still had to go through another NICU, still had to hold on to a premature baby. This time, I was slammed by a hurricane called, postpartum depression. Told mostly through journal entries and poetry, this is a story of my storm.
I love the life I live
I love the life I live
if I say it over and over again,
Maybe I'll live the life I love.
I love the life I live
I love the life I live
if I say it over and over again,
Maybe I'll live the life I love.
This is a collection I wrote during cycles of happiness, gratitude, rage, anxiety, and depression. This is meant to spread awareness as each high and low points yielded an observation and a note. There is sunshine and darkness. There is PMDD and then there is me.
Romance
For her 18th birthday, Lenora Grace Williams is given a box. Aside from trinkets and photographs, there are three letters from her mother, written before she died. While reading the letters, Lenora wrestles with finding her faith, following her heart, and forgiving the secrets and heartache her mother left behind.
Advocacy
At the Texas Collaborative for Healthy Mothers & Babies (TCHMB) and I found a table with the Hear Her Texas campaign. I was featured in their series. Forever grateful and humbled for choosing to listen to my story.
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This was the first big panel I had ever been on. There were a little over 500 doctors, nurses, medical professionals, etc who listened to the 3 of us share our lived-in patient experiences.
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New Blog post
Blog: what's new with me
....I had written poems some due to what was happening to Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) community, I also held myself back to not sound so angry. I hesitated because I wanted to make sure people who could potentially read my work doesn't associate me as an angry Asian woman........but the past few months, especially, I feel like my anger has increased and so has my fear.
I'd like to channel that to strengthen some poems but anchor in the hope of what being an immigrant means to me; how growing up as an "other" fit into my psyche.
So, without further ado......... love, lumpia and words. I hope to celebrate the start of Filipino American Heritage Month with the book in your hands.
I'd like to channel that to strengthen some poems but anchor in the hope of what being an immigrant means to me; how growing up as an "other" fit into my psyche.
So, without further ado......... love, lumpia and words. I hope to celebrate the start of Filipino American Heritage Month with the book in your hands.