Perinatal Anxiety Most new pregnant and/or new mothers/birthing people feel as though they have a thousand things to worry about after having a baby. However, if your feelings of anxiety are interfering with your overall functioning, you may be experiencing…
Perinatal Depression Any woman/birthing person who is pregnant or has given birth within the past 12 months can receive this diagnosis if they experience some of the following symptoms:
Perinatal OCD Many mothers experience perinatal OCD without ever having any previous diagnosis of an anxiety disorder. You may be experiencing perinatal OCD if you encounter any of the following symptoms during the pregnancy or postpartum period:
Perinatal PTSD Many pregnant/postpartum women and birthing people experience perinatal PTSD as a result of previous trauma, including physical or sexual abuse, or due to a traumatic birth. These symptoms can include:
Symptoms include: Obsessions also called intrusive thoughts, which are persistent, repetitive thoughts or mental images regarding the baby. These thoughts are very upsetting.
Compulsions, where the mom may do certain things over and over again to try to reduce her fears and obsessions. This may include things like needing to clean constantly, checking things many times, and counting or reordering things.
It’s important to know that mothers/birthing people with postpartum OCD understand the strange nature of their thoughts and are disturbed by them. Therefore the likelihood of ever acting upon these intrusions is very low.
A sense of horror about these obsessions Fear of being left alone with the infant Hyper-vigilance in protecting the infant
Symptoms include: Intrusive reexperiencing of a past traumatic event (which may have been childbirth itself) Flashbacks or nightmares
Avoidance of stimuli associated with the event, including thoughts, feelings, people, places, and details
