Happy Pride Month from all of us at Wildflower Center for Emotional Health! This Pride Month, we are shining a light on how to be an effective ally and friend to people in the LGBTQIA+ community going through infertility. Infertility is a deeply emotional experience, and for LGBTQIA+ individuals and couples, the journey to parenthood…
Perinatal and Reproductive Mental Health
Postpartum Depression: What Are the Symptoms?
If you’re in a season of having kids or considering having kids, chances are you know someone who has experienced Postpartum Depression (PPD). Studies show as many as 21% of new moms experience PPD (Wisner et al., 2013), but what does that actually mean? We are going to break down the symptoms associated with PPD…
Recognizing and Celebrating Maternal Mental Health Awareness Month
May is Maternal Mental Health Awareness Month, a time to raise awareness about the emotional and psychological challenges that many women face during the transition to parenthood. Conditions like postpartum depression, anxiety, and other perinatal mood and anxiety disorders often go undiagnosed and untreated, affecting not only mothers but also their families and children’s development. Although…
The Silent Struggle: Perinatal OCD and Intrusive Thoughts
Before giving birth to your child, you might have expected sleepless nights, dirty diapers, and emotional ups and downs. What you might not have expected were terrifying, intrusive thoughts that seemed to come out of nowhere. Some of these thoughts might look like images of accidentally dropping your baby down the stairs or of harming…
National Infertility Awareness Week: Compassion, Education, and Advocacy
During National Infertility Awareness Week (NIAW) we join with many leading organizations in a campaign to shed light on the deeply personal and often misunderstood experience of infertility that impacts millions of individuals and couples worldwide. Infertility can be an isolating journey, filled with emotional, physical, and financial challenges, yet it remains a topic that…
When Love and Diapers Collide: Navigating Your Postpartum Relationship
As a therapist who specializes in perinatal mental health and sex/couples therapy, I often witness what happens when romantic love meets sleep deprivation, hormonal changes, and a tiny crying human alarm clock that doesn’t come with a snooze button. In the postpartum period, partners might feel more like cranky roommates than starry-eyed soulmates. If this…
Menstrual Cycle and Mental Health: What to Know and How to Cope
Many women know that their menstrual cycle can impact mood, but don’t know the specifics of how each phase of the cycle can affect them. Research shows that changes in estrogen and progesterone can affect emotional regulation, cognitive function, and overall mental well-being (Handy et al., 2022), with each part of the cycle exerting a different…
The Many Faces of Postpartum Worry
The postpartum period is often described as a time of joy and bonding, but for many new moms, it’s also a time of worry. Transition to parenthood is a significant life change, bringing emotional, hormonal, relationship, and lifestyle shifts all at once. Caring for a newborn while adjusting to your life being completely different makes…
Supporting Trauma Survivors During the Perinatal Period
The perinatal period can be challenging, and for those who have experienced trauma, it can be triggering. Survivors of trauma who are pregnant, trying to get pregnant, struggling with infertility, or have delivered children often encounter situations that remind them of previous trauma. These experiences may be traumatizing in and of themselves. Loved ones of…
The Importance of New Moms Support Groups
All Moms Need Support Whether you are a first time mom, or welcoming additional children to your family, a new moms support group can be a lifeline, providing a validating, warm, and supportive space to share your experience and learn from others in this same stage of life. When we share our joys and challenges…
