Becoming a parent is one of the most life-altering things a person can do. It is also one of the loneliest seasons many people will ever live through — especially when the picture you see everywhere does not match the one you are living inside. If the days have felt heavier than you expected, if joy has felt strangely far away, if you cry at the slightest thing or find yourself feeling almost nothing at all, you are not failing at motherhood or parenthood. You are not weak, and you are not ungrateful. Postpartum depression is a very real medical and emotional condition, and it touches up to one in seven mothers — alongside many partners, adoptive parents, and parents after pregnancy or infant loss. We want you to know this: needing help right now does not make you a bad parent. It makes you a parent who is paying attention. You are not broken. You are bravely turning toward yourself in a season where almost everything around you is asking you to take care of someone else.
In sessions, we walk alongside you at the pace this season allows. There is no need to have a tidy story or to know exactly what is wrong. Together we make space for the gap between what you imagined and what is actually happening, the identity shifts that come with becoming a parent, the sleep deprivation that amplifies everything, and the very real changes in your body and brain after pregnancy and birth. We also help you tell the difference between depression, anxiety, OCD-like intrusive thoughts, rage, and trauma — patterns that often travel together in the postpartum period and that are far more common, and far more treatable, than most people realize. Common areas we work with include:
- postpartum depression — sadness, numbness, hopelessness, or feeling disconnected from your baby or yourself
- postpartum anxiety — racing thoughts, dread, hypervigilance, and constant worry
- postpartum OCD and intrusive thoughts that scare you (these are extremely common and do not mean what you fear they mean)
- postpartum rage and irritability that surprise you
- birth trauma and difficult birth experiences
- breastfeeding, feeding struggles, and the grief around feeding plans that did not unfold as hoped
- pregnancy loss, stillbirth, and infant loss
- adoptive parents and the postpartum season that often goes unseen
- partner postpartum depression and the parent who is not lactating or birthing
- the identity shift of new parenthood — sometimes called matrescence — and the grief of who you were before
- relationship strain with your partner in this season
- depression and anxiety that have continued well past the first year
You do not have to wait until things are dire to begin, and you do not have to be sure what to call what you are feeling. We would be happy to walk through this with you. Step by step, you and your counselor will move toward a postpartum season where you can rest, be honest about what is hard, and slowly find yourself — and your love for this new chapter — again.
If you are struggling, you can reach Postpartum Support International at 1-800-944-4773 (call or text), or the National Maternal Mental Health Hotline at 1-833-852-6262 (call or text, available 24/7). If you are having thoughts of harming yourself or your baby, or if you are experiencing hallucinations or sudden, dramatic changes in mood or thinking, please call 911 — postpartum psychosis is rare but is a medical emergency.