You are the most important person in your baby’s life but it can be easy to forget about your own needs during pregnancy and the early months after the birth of baby. About 1 in 5 women experience depression, anxiety or other emotional difficulties in pregnancy or those early months. Sometimes these mental health challenges can make it hard to enjoy motherhood and to get on with life. Perinatal anxiety and depression can happen to anyone regardless of background, age, life circumstances or past history.
Some common contributing factors are:
- Uncertainty about parenthood
- Relationship problems
- Pre-existing mental ill-health
- Complications in pregnancy or childbirth
- Or if parenting is not what you expected
Lack of sleep, lack of support, and the occurrence of other stressful events makes women more vulnerable to perinatal anxiety and depression.
Some of the symptoms of perinatal anxiety and depression include:
- Overwhelming feelings of tiredness or hopelessness
- Loss of interest or pleasure in doing things you would normally enjoy
- Excessive tiredness, lack of energy, tearfulness
- Feeling unable to cope and of being not good enough
- Other feelings like confusion, guilt and shame might be present.
- Very serious symptoms might include suicidal thoughts, paranoia, hallucinations and other bizarre thoughts and behaviours.
You can help yourself. Be kind to yourself and be realistic. Parenting is not easy all the time – in fact it can sometimes be pretty awful when you are exhausted and your baby needs feeding and changing AGAIN. Make time for yourself – rest, eat, exercise and shower. Emotional support – don’t try to cope on your own. Discuss your feelings with someone else. Practical support – ask for help. Get out and about. Join a mums and bubs group. Be mindful of additional stress and manage it if possible.
You can get treatment and support. Your GP and Child Health Nurse are good places to start. Below are some websites and phone numbers you can access:
The Gidget Foundation Australia – 1300 851 758
Dads can help by just doing stuff. Don’t wait to be asked to do a load of laundry or to wash the dishes.
And If you know a pregnant woman, or a woman with a small baby, ASK what you can do to help. It takes a community to raise a baby. Ask if she wants a meal cooked, her laundry done or the baby held while she pops to the shop.
This article has been written by Dr Liz Tompkins
