OVERVIEW
The full range of what comes up.
Nobody warned you about this part. The part where you love them completely and also grieve your life. Where you're scared and hopeful in the same breath. Where the body is doing something extraordinary and also no longer feels entirely yours.
According to Postpartum Support International, 1 in 5 women experience a perinatal mood or anxiety disorder. Postpartum anxiety may actually be more common than postpartum depression, yet receives significantly less attention, less screening, and far fewer resources. Many people suffering from it don't know it has a name.
Anxiety during pregnancy that's hard to separate from appropriate concern. Postpartum depression and postpartum anxiety, which aren't always the tearful crash people expect. Sometimes it's numbness, or irritability, or the quiet sense of being completely disconnected from the experience you thought you were having.
The identity shift of becoming a parent, sometimes called matrescence for birthing parents, though the experience extends to all new parents, is real, significant, and almost entirely undersupported. The version of yourself that existed before doesn't disappear, and figuring out where she fits alongside this new role takes time and often some help.
We also work with pregnancy after loss or a difficult prior experience. Complicated feelings about a wanted pregnancy that is now terrifying. Birth experiences that went differently than expected, and what that leaves behind.
IN SESSION
What you're allowed to feel
You're allowed to have feelings about this transition that are not just gratitude. Ambivalence is not a failure of love. The difficulty of this period does not mean you're doing it wrong. We support all kinds of parents and all kinds of experiences of this transition, including the parts that don't make it into announcements.
COMMON QUESTIONS
What people ask about perinetal therapy
What's the difference between postpartum depression and postpartum anxiety?
Postpartum depression typically involves persistent sadness, low energy, loss of interest in things that used to matter, and sometimes a feeling of disconnection from your baby. Postpartum anxiety involves intrusive worry, fear, hypervigilance, often specifically about the baby's safety, racing thoughts, and a sense of dread that doesn't ease. The two can co-occur, and both are treatable. Postpartum anxiety is often more common than depression but goes unrecognized longer because it doesn't match the cultural image of postpartum struggles.
I feel overwhelmed and not quite like myself, but I love my baby. Does that mean something is wrong?
No. Those things can be completely true at the same time. The love you feel for your baby and the difficulty of the transition are not in contradiction. The fact that this is hard doesn't mean you're failing, and it doesn't mean anything about your fitness as a parent. Feeling not quite like yourself is actually one of the most honest descriptions of what early parenthood does. It asks you to become someone new while still being who you were, and that's genuinely a lot.
My baby is several months old. Is it too late for postpartum therapy?
No. Postpartum mood and anxiety disorders can emerge or persist well into the first year and beyond. There's no expiration date on getting support. Some people don't recognize what they've been experiencing until months in, or don't feel like they can ask for help until the acute survival phase has passed. Whenever you're ready, that's the right time.