You can love your baby and still not feel like yourself right now.
Maybe this is something you wanted more than anything.
And maybe you’re also anxious, overwhelmed, angry, lonely, touched out, exhausted, or wondering why this feels so much harder than you thought it would.
You can be grateful for your baby and miss your old life.
You can be a good mom and need help.
Both can be true.
Motherhood can be wonderful without feeling wonderful all the time.
Pregnancy and new parenthood come with enormous changes to your body, relationships, routines, sleep, identity, and sense of control.
And sometimes what you’re experiencing goes beyond the expected adjustment.
You might find yourself constantly checking whether the baby is okay. Imagining terrible things happening. Unable to sleep even when you have the opportunity. Crying more than you expected. Feeling disconnected from your baby or partner. Irritable or angry in ways that don’t feel like you. Or carrying a constant sense that you’re doing something wrong.
Sometimes the thought is simply:
“I thought I would be better at this.”
Not every postpartum struggle looks like sadness.
Perinatal mental health concerns can include depression and anxiety, but they can also show up as intrusive thoughts, panic, rage, guilt, difficulty bonding, obsessive checking, birth trauma, grief, or a feeling that you’ve completely lost yourself somewhere in becoming a mom.
And intrusive thoughts can be particularly frightening.
Having an unwanted, upsetting thought does not mean you want it to happen. But when you don’t know that, the shame can make it incredibly hard to tell anyone what’s going on.
Therapy should be a place where you can say the thing you’re afraid to say out loud.
Sometimes the hardest transition is becoming someone new.
Motherhood changes more than your schedule.
Your relationships may change. Your body may feel unfamiliar. Your career may suddenly feel different. Your partner may not understand what you need. Your friendships can shift.
And everyone is asking about the baby while you’re quietly wondering:
What happened to me?
Therapy gives you space to care about the person who became a mother, too.
You don't have to be postpartum to need support.
Our therapists work with women throughout the perinatal and maternal experience, including those navigating pregnancy, postpartum adjustment, infertility, pregnancy loss, birth trauma, parenting stress, identity changes, relationship challenges, and the emotional load of motherhood.
You also don't have to wait until you're struggling enough to qualify for a diagnosis.
Sometimes you simply need somewhere you don't have to pretend this is all going great.
You were never supposed to carry all of this by yourself.
Therapy can help you understand what you're experiencing, feel less alone in it, develop tools for anxiety and overwhelm, process difficult experiences, and begin finding your footing in a version of life that may look very different from the one you had before.
Getting support doesn't mean you're failing at motherhood.
It means your mental health matters in this story, too.
