More than Blue- Film Screening/Prerecorded Round Table Discussion
Includes a Live Web Event on 10/26/2026 at 4:45 PM (EDT)
A film by Lee S. Cohen, M.D, Directed by Julia Marchesi
We are honored to bring More Than Blue to the DONA Summit as a special film screening event. As a community deeply invested in perinatal mental health, we are always looking for new ways to engage with this conversation. This documentary brings a distinct perspective to PMADs, one grounded in the lived experiences of families and well worth experiencing together.
Weaving personal stories together with expert insight, the film works to raise awareness, reduce stigma, and champion the care that clients deserve as they recover and heal. Despite meaningful progress in screening over the past decade, most individuals experiencing postpartum depression, anxiety, or psychosis continue to go undiagnosed or untreated. The work is continues.
For doulas, this film hits close to home. We show up during the rawest, most tender moments of the postpartum experience, and we are often the first person a client feels safe enough to be honest with. That trust matters. In the spirit of Awareness to Action: Insight to Practice, More Than Blue invites us to take what we witness in our work and turn it into something more, deeper knowledge, more confident responses, and a stronger ability to ensure that no one falls through the cracks.
More Than Blue is both a tribute to the resilience of families and a grounded, science-backed call to action, because no one should suffer in shame or silence.
Watch the Trailer
After the Screening: More Than Blue
From Awareness to Action: The Doula’s Role in Supporting Families; The conversation doesn’t end when the credits roll.
Following the screening of More Than Blue, join producer Lee Cohen, M.D., and DONA International doula trainers Krista Maltais, Ann Grauer, and Melissa Harley for a conversation about the stories shared in the film and what they mean for doulas.
Doulas often build trusted relationships with families before concerns arise and may be among the first people a parent feels safe enough to tell, “Something doesn’t feel right.” But recognizing that someone is struggling is only the beginning.
Together, the panel explores the power of relationship, the importance of beginning conversations about perinatal mental health early, and the doula’s role in helping families connect with meaningful resources and support.
The film creates awareness. This conversation asks what comes next.
Dr. Lee Cohen
M.D.
More Than Blue
Lee S. Cohen, M.D., is Director of the Ammon-Pinizzotto Center for Women’s Mental Health at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Edmund and Carroll Carpenter Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. A nationally and internationally recognized leader in women’s mental health, Dr. Cohen was among the founders of the field of perinatal and reproductive psychiatry.
For more than three decades, his work has spanned clinical care, research, and education focused on psychiatric illness across the reproductive lifespan. His areas of expertise include the treatment of mood and anxiety disorders during pregnancy and the postpartum period, as well as mental health concerns related to infertility and midlife. His research has contributed to the evidence guiding the care of individuals experiencing psychiatric illness during pregnancy and postpartum.
Dr. Cohen is the Executive Producer and Producer of More Than Blue: Faces and Voices of Postpartum Depression Across America, a documentary created to bring the lived experiences of postpartum depression, anxiety, and psychosis to a broader audience. Drawing on decades of caring for patients with perinatal psychiatric illness, Dr. Cohen recognized that increased screening and awareness had not always translated into access to effective treatment and recovery. More Than Blue brings together personal stories and clinical expertise with the goal of reducing stigma, increasing understanding, and helping more families connect with appropriate care.
Through both his clinical work and More Than Blue, Dr. Cohen continues to advocate for a future in which perinatal mental health conditions are recognized, openly discussed, effectively treated, and met with the support families need to get well.
Website: morethanbluedocumentary.com
Ann Grauer
AdvCD/AdvPCD(DONA), BDT/PDT(DONA), LCCE, FACCE, IBCLC, RLC
Ann Grauer, AdvCD/AdvPCD(DONA), PDT(DONA), LCCE, FACCE, IBCLC is celebrating 35 years of working with expectant, birthing and new families. She is the recipient of Lamaze International's prestigious Elisabeth Bing Award for excellence in childbirth education and DONA International's Phyllis Klaus Founders Award for outstanding, positive impact on parent infant bonding. A charter member of DONA International, she helped create and implement DONA's postpartum doula training and certification programs.
A board certified lactation consultant in private practice, she is also a Motherhood Studies Certified Practitioner, is a Gottman Institute Bringing Baby Home Educator and was the first doula certified to perform the Brazelton Neonatal Behavioral Assessment (NBAS).
A mom of two, mother in law of two and Mamaw to the precocious Margot, Ann and her husband live in Milwaukee with their long haired dachshund, Howie.
Melissa Harley
B.A., AdvCD/BDT(DONA), CLC, LCCE, FACCE
Capital City Doula Services
Melissa Harley is an Advanced Certified Birth Doula and DONA International Birth Doula Trainer, Certified Lactation Counselor, Lamaze Certified Childbirth Educator, and Fellow of the Academy of Certified Childbirth Educators. A doula since 2003 and DONA-approved trainer since 2009, she has supported more than 1,500 families and trained more than 1,500 doulas throughout her career.
Melissa has served DONA International in numerous leadership roles, including President, Immediate Past President, President Elect, Marketing and Public Relations Director, Regional Director, and Florida State Representative. Her work with DONA has also included service on committees focused on education, certification, conferences, legislative action, grievance, and communications. She currently serves as DONA International’s Conference and Webinar Coordinator.
Education has been at the center of Melissa’s work for more than two decades. In addition to training birth doulas, she develops and teaches continuing education for birth professionals in areas including physiologic birth, doula skills and practice, lactation, perinatal mental health, and supporting families within complex healthcare systems.
Melissa is the founder of Capital City Doula Services and the Capital City Doula & Parent Education Center. In 2025, she received DONA International’s Penny Simkin Award for Excellence in Doula Care, recognizing her contributions to doula care, education, leadership, and the profession.
Website: capitalcitydoulaservices.com
Krista Maltais
AdvPCD/PDT(DONA), ALC, BS
Krista Maltais is an Advanced Postpartum Doula and Postpartum Doula Trainer with DONA International as well as an Advanced Lactation Counselor with the Academy of Lactation Policy and Practice. She holds a BS in Family Studies from the University of New Hampshire and is the Founder and Owner of Relief Parenting Respite & Resource Center in Hampton, NH; the first and only parenting center of it’s kind. She is also the author of “My Baby, My Doula, and Me”, a children’s book about postpartum doula care.
Krista has the unique lived experience of becoming a postpartum doula at the age of 23 and spending 7 years working as a doula before having her first child.
Krista brings her educational background, professional observations, and personal experiences into each of her workshop and mentorship experiences. She is passionate about perinatal and parental support and strongly believes doula work is a form of advocacy and preventative care.
Key:
Complete
Next
Failed
Available
Locked