Being diagnosed with postpartum depression opened Sarah Norton’s eyes and expanded her heart, compelling her to not only help herself but also many other suffering moms. Now a mother of four, the 34-year-old painter runs a print shop called Conversion Street Studio. A North Dakota native, she lives in Eagan and belongs to St. Joseph in West St. Paul.
Q) Tell me about your postpartum depression.
A) My whole life I ticked along pretty well, and then having kids — in particular, with my second — and being diagnosed with postpartum depression, I had this mental health reckoning where I was forced to face a lot of things: I’m not good at sleeping, I’m not good at exercising, my lifestyle is not very good in order to support me being a mom and my own person. I realized I have to build safeguards because I’m taking care of my kids and myself. As a mom, you don’t have time to mess around with sleep, food, exercise and prayer. If your life isn’t centered on that, things go awry.
Q) Were there warning signs?
A) I had extreme irritability. Yelling a lot. I’m usually pretty chill. One day my daughter, who was 3 at the time, said, “Mom, you should go to the doctor.” That’s where I was told this is pretty classic postpartum depression.
Q) What helped?
A) They had me sign up for some therapy and gave me a small prescription for an antidepressant, but the thing that helped me the most was just knowing that the thing I was experiencing was postpartum depression. That opened an entire world, just knowing: This is hard, but now I have a very reasonable way forward. I combined the therapy and medication with a daily regimen of exercise, good eating habits and prayer. And it’s not like my mental health is perfect now. It’s something I always have to maintain.
Q) What didn’t help?
A) Trying to apply the wrong medicine didn’t help. Sleeping too much. Or watching too much Netflix. Or buying things or alcohol. Those are all ways you can feel good temporarily, but it wasn’t satisfying. The cool thing about being Catholic is the faith and reason component. We have the faith, where you can dig deeper in prayer and draw closer to Jesus, and also the reason, these proven ways of living a good life. I know self-care is a funny word now: When I think of self-care, I think of things you can do to help live your mission better. What can I do to be a better wife, mother, child of God? Oftentimes it is not Netflix or alcohol or shopping. Maybe carving out time to do things you love, things that can help us live our mission better.
Q) A priest once told me that all the great spiritual thinkers write that the victories of tomorrow are won tonight.
A) Before we go to bed, my husband and I set up our house for success. Basically, we make sure our house is tidy, nothing where it shouldn’t be. And if we need to reconcile with each other or the kids, we do that before bed. A very practical thing and a spiritual thing: a clean house and the forgiveness of Jesus. We always think of our house as a monastery. There’s a reason why monasteries are clean and uncluttered.
Q) Was that a natural instinct for you?
A) We both came into marriage knowing that having too much stuff is a weight on us. It’s gone through ebbs and flows, but it’s always been an underpinning in our lives. It’s had remarkable effects on our psyches. You feel a physical weight off you.
I try to involve the older kids, giving them little bite-sized things to do.
Q) With kids ages 1 to 9, how do you curb excess stuff at Christmastime?
A) I get them two presents. That’s what it is. Because I know they’ll get presents from other people. There were a couple years there, in the beginning, when, after opening all these gifts, we didn’t feel happy. So, we slowly dropped off on the presents. The last two years we’ve done the two-present thing.
The kids get a lot of things — and a lot of it tends to go in the trash.
As Catholics, we believe there really is a connection between us and our environment, the world God gave us. We’re not supposed to waste. That’s a main principle.
Q) There’s more waste than ever with all these plastic toys wrapped in layers of plastic where the main attraction is the unboxing, not the playing with it later.
A) I’m obsessed with quality. I try to get them quality toys that they will keep. For example, my daughter has this cute wooden sushi set. It’s nicely made, hand-painted, and she’s had it forever. And honestly, we don’t go into stores much. COVID really changed how we do shopping.
Q) Did your postpartum depression change you?
A) 100 percent. It’s given me a supernatural charity for other mothers. I love mothers, and I try to leave others better than I found them. One compliment from someone else can make all the difference. I try to build up other moms by being present to them, hanging out with them, building them up and I hop on those meal trains after they have a baby.
There was a mom I recently saw after Mass who was eight months pregnant, and you could tell she was feeling lousy. I could sense that, and I ran after her and told her she looked stunningly beautiful. I could see her entire countenance lifted. Moms need to be affirmed. It’s so easy to feel like: “I’m failing my kids, I just messed up again.”
If I can tell someone is struggling, a lot of times I ask them if they’ve talked to a doctor about it. Or I’ll ask them to explain what they’re sharing, because sometimes it might be very veiled.
Q) And you created a podcast called “Mental” — that you can search for on streaming services with your name.
A) I couldn’t believe the number of women in my friend group who experienced the same thing. I felt I needed to share my story so other women can feel supported and get help.
Q) Tapping into creative outlets is another form of self-care. When did you begin painting?
A) I inherited a bunch of paints when I was in fourth grade. In college, I decided to make good on them and took some college-level painting courses. In 2020, a friend who had seen a couple of my paintings asked to commission me. It was for a kids playroom — a huge 4-by-5-feet resurrection-themed Aslan from Narnia with flowers and a big old lion — acrylic and oil.
That started it all. I’m forever thankful to her. And then I got other commissions from there.
Q) Was it hard to establish a rate for that first one?
A) Yes! It was basically like, “I’ll do it for you as a gift.” And she was like, “No, I want to pay you.” I charged her $100.
Q) How do you feel when you paint?
A) Painting is one of my favorite things. I’m completely mindful. There’s no thought of the future or the past. Time seems to stop.
Q) How has launching a small business influenced you?
A) It’s increased my faith. I feel like that’s how you know you’re doing something really good, that the Lord wants: if it increases your faith. It’s a discernment of spirit that St. Ignatius taught: If something increases your faith, you’re on the right track.
