Meranie Gadiana Rahman is the reigning Mrs. Philippines World and all set to represent her country in Mrs World 2021 to be held in Sri Lanka.
A pageant Mrs. World is the oldest and very prestigious competition created in 1984 by Elaine Marmel and late David Marmel to provide a platform to delegates from around the world who come together to share a common purpose. Mrs World pageant is a place for all married women, including mothers, young wives, and even grandmothers, to foster friendship and promote mutual understanding.
Meranie for the very first time took part in the pageant she won the title as well as the hearts of thousands of people. Pageants played an extremely important part in her life as they helped her to get over Postpartum Depression.
Her battle with Postpartum Depression
Beauty Queen Meranie Gadiana Rahman is a Postpartum Depression survivor. She wants to promote postpartum depression awareness as her advocacy to the whole world.
She is working towards it every day and has a vision that one day there will be a Postpartum Depression Awareness Day in the whole world starting from the Philippines.
She says that Postpartum Depression is something of which only a few people are aware of and this is a common problem faced by the women after child birth, and some men, which needs to be taken seriously. Further putting more light on the issue she told us what exactly Postpartum
Depression is all about. She mentioned up to 80% of women experience the “baby blues” after childbirth. The mood swings, crying spells, and irritability can last up to few days and is considered to be normal. However, when these symptoms become more severe and long-lasting it could be Postpartum Depression. PPD affects 10-20% of new mothers.
Remembering the times when she was suffering from PPD she shared how she could not sleep and used to have severe mood swings. She was irritable and sad all the time. Sometimes she ignored her son when he cried and then she herself felt even more terrible for ignoring him. Being depressed doesn’t kill the motherly instinct. She too loved her son very much and used to cry for ignoring him.
Counselors and psychologist tried their best to help her but her condition was getting worst day by day. Her husband Dr. Inam Rahman MD was very supportive during the time and being in the medical doctor himself diagnosed her with PPD.
He suggested she join the beauty pageant which she did and it helped her a lot in healing. After this, she thought of promoting Postpartum Depression as her advocacy to help all the women and men suffering from this serious disease which has lead to suicide in many cases but unfortunately not much is known about it.
She took courses in Postpartum Depression to educate herself more, and enough to help others and successfully got Postnatal Depression Awareness Diploma. She competed in several pageants and promoted her advocacy. She also talked about it on TV and Radio shows as a guest speakers.
Meranie and her advocacy were showcased in many Newspapers and magazines including ABS-CBN, Manila Bulletin, The Manila Times, Phil Star, Push Magazine, LA Wire, NY Weekly just to name a few. She also opened a nonprofit organization “ You are Loved Foundation for Postpartum Depression Awareness”.
*Lastly she added,*” Whenever you feel sad, just remember, you are the center of the universe to a tiny human you gave birth to. It is a big deal because that tiny human can grow up to be a leader of tomorrow”
