This Mother's Day - Sunday, May 10, 2009 - the first Mother's Day Rally for Moms' Mental Health will be held online, featuring 24 open letters to new mothers on the importance of maternal mental health.

All of the letters will be written by survivors of and experts on perinatal mood and anxiety disorders, including postpartum depression and postpartum psychosis, as well as others who care about the emotional well-being of moms and moms-to-be. The event will be hosted at Postpartum Progress, the most widely-read blog in the United States on perinatal mood and anxiety disorders.

Each hour, on the hour, for 24 hours straight, Postpartum Progress will post a different "Letter to New Moms." Participants in the Mother's Day Rally for Moms' Mental Health include:

• Rita Arens, editor of "Sleep Is For the Weak: The Best of the Mommybloggers" and author of the blog Surrender, Dorothy


• Vicki Glembocki, author of "The Second Nine Months: One Woman Tells the Real Truth About Becoming A Mom … Finally" and featured blogger on Oprah.com with Blunt Force Mama


• Catherine Connors, author of the very popular mommy blog Her Bad Mother and contributing editor at BlogHer


• Therese Borchard, author of the hit daily blog "Beyond Blue" on Beliefnet, which is featured regularly on the Huffington Post, and editor of "The Imperfect Mom: Candid Confessions of Mothers Living in the Real World"


• Stefanie Wilder-Taylor, author of "Sippy Cups Are Not For Chardonnay" and "Naptime is the New Happy Hour" and a regular on NBC's "The Today Show"


• Ruta Nonacs, MD, PhD, Harvard Medical School psychiatry professor and author of "A Deeper Shade of Blue: A Woman's Guide to Recognizing & Treating Depression in Her Childbearing Years"

The letter writers were given a blank canvas to share their humor, experience, tips and ideas focusing on mental health during pregnancy and postpartum.

Postpartum Progress, founded in 2004, is a blog written for sufferers, survivors and healthcare providers in the perinatal mood and anxiety disorder arena. In both 2007 and 2008 it was selected as one of the top 10 depression blogs on the web by Psych Central. Its author, Katherine Stone, was selected by WebMD as one of its 2008 Health Heroes for her work on the site. Stone serves on the board of Postpartum Support International, the world's largest non-profit dedicated to helping women with perinatal mood and anxiety disorders.