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Image by Mustafa Omar

Perinatal Therapy

Perinatal Therapy is...

Perinatal means the period of “all around” birth. We use it to mean the period all throughout pregnancy as well as the baby’s first year. In other words, the period up to and through pregnancy and the first year postpartum.

Parents of every culture, age, income level and race can develop perinatal mental health disorders. As many as 1 in 5 moms (1 in 10 dads) experience symptoms of depression and anxiety during the postpartum period. And if you are a woman of color, specifically a black woman experiencing maternal mental health symptoms at nearly twice the rate of all women.

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Symptoms can appear any time during pregnancy and the first 12 months after childbirth.

Perinatal therapists are mental health professionals who have received specialized training to address the unique emotional, psychological, and relational challenges experienced by expecting and new parents. 

 

Perinatal therapy addresses all things motherhood, symptoms of depression and anxiety, and birth trauma. In addition to processing feelings connected to grief and loss, experiences related to fertility as well as relationship stress. We can discuss feelings connected to preconception and family planning. 

Perinatal Mental Health Disorders

(from https://www.postpartum.net/learn-more/)

  • Do you feel anxious or panicky? sad or depressed? problems with eating or sleeping?

  • Do you feel more irritable or angry with those around you?

  • Are you having difficulty bonding with your baby?

  • Are you having upsetting thoughts that you can’t get out of your mind?

  • Do you feel as if you are “out of control” or “going crazy”?

  • Do you feel like you never should have become a parent?

  • Are you worried that you might hurt your baby or yourself?

Someone with Postpartum Depression (PPD) might experience feelings of anger, sadness, irritability, guilt, lack of interest in the baby, changes in eating and sleeping habits, trouble concentrating, thoughts of hopelessness and sometimes even thoughts of harming the baby or themselves.

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Someone with Postpartum Anxiety (PPA) may experience extreme worries and fears, often over the health and safety of the baby. Some people have panic attacks and might feel shortness of breath, chest pain, dizziness, a feeling of losing control, and numbness and tingling.

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Postpartum Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PPTSD) is often caused by a traumatic or frightening childbirth or past trauma, and symptoms may include flashbacks of the trauma with feelings of anxiety and the need to avoid things related to that event.

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Therapy Session

With therapy,
it can get better. 

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