Having a baby is a joyful experience, isn’t it? Well, not for everyone — at least, not right away. For many parents, bringing home a new baby means stress, exhaustion, and pain. For many mothers it also means coping with a serious set of raging postpartum hormones. It can be challenging to connect with your newborn baby. In other words, it’s totally normal to feel overwhelmed, anxious, and so incredibly tired you just want to go sleep in your car for a few days and forget about life for a while.
According to the World Health Organization, this phenomenon often called the “Baby Blues,” affects up to 80% of mothers and 20% of fathers. It usually starts within a few days of the child’s birth, lasts a week or two, and tends to go away on its own. During this time, most new parents feel weepy, drained, anxious, irritable, and overwhelmed.
However, for some, this experience may not fade away. It may begin to intensify, and may develop into something more serious but completely treatable. According to the San Diego Postpartum Health Alliance, Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders (PMADs) impact 1 in 5 new moms, and 1 in 10 new dads. That’s a lot of people! Unfortunately, many parents are afraid to seek support.
Whether you are personally struggling as a new parent or a concerned loved one, you are not alone. Parenting is hard, and it’s not meant to be done in isolation. That saying “It takes a village to raise a child” is not wrong.
At Healthy Connections Center, we have several clinicians who have extensive experience with parenting and maternal mental health. Generally, we use a combination of nutrition, cognitive support and experiential activities such as yoga and mindfulness, to create a unique support plan for each of our new parents.
For more information or to complete a postpartum screening tool, please visit the San Diego Postpartum Health Alliance at postpartumhealthalliance.org