It is not uncommon for women to experience anxiety, depression, or other mood and behavioral dysregulation while they are pregnant.
It’s even more common for new mothers to have uncomfortable, sometimes seemingly uncontrollable emotions after they give birth.
I can help new mothers learn how to manage their thoughts and emotions, navigate infant care, and just make it through those hard days when all she may really want to do is crawl into bed and sleep (or run away). I can help new parents come to terms with their new responsibilities and work out problems that may seem insurmountable in the middle of sleepless nights filled with tears.
Is your partner possibly experiencing a perinatal or postpartum condition?
Maybe you are trying to figure out if you or your partner needs to get some help from a professional. Consider reading the list of Problematic Symptoms in New Motherhood above, and remember it’s not an exhaustive symptom list. Also, women need to understand that these conditions may affect them even before they give birth, while they are pregnant, and sometimes when they are taking fertility medications before conception (due to the alteration in their hormones). Furthermore, women who have experienced perinatal loss or other dissolution of pregnancy for any reason are at high risk too.
It’s easy for dads and other romantic partners to get lost in the shuffle here.
Many times mothers and babies are the focus of attention because they are the ones that often have the most dramatic changes and responses to childbirth. However, all new parents experience exceptional, never-the-same-again changes.
It’s important to understand and support all new parents so the family can be successful and happy. With this in mind, I often work with couples on navigating their new responsibilities together. Even second-time-around (or more) parents, who are not new to parenthood, often experience new, stressful challenges with the birth of subsequent children. Setting things up to take off on a good foot is the best way to see families flourish, and addressing problems when they emerge is the best way to head off future trouble.
The best way to see families flourish is to address problems when they emerge.