As an emergency medicine resident, Stefanie Simmons, MD, didn’t plan on experiencing postpartum depression following the birth of her second child. But she also didn’t seek care—a decision that, to this day, she attributes to the harmful belief that physicians should power through any and all obstacles because physicians are supposed to be immune from personal crises.

Dr. Simmons continued as an emergency physician but recognizes that her experience of depression lasted much longer than necessary because of her lack of care. As she recovered, she learned more about the resources available and began to look at how she could help her colleagues. As her career progressed, she realized that she could not only model the types of actions that would help her students and colleagues, but that broader action was needed.