Mental Health during and Post Pregnancy

Anxieties during pregnancy and childbirth, serve as occasions for health promotion and life transitions where behavioral health concerns may arise. Pregnancy and the Postpartum Period are times of enormous change for women and their families. It is an exciting time in every woman’s life. A time to rejoice, welcome a new life into the world, yet one with immense expectation. It is also a time of overwhelming change which is happening at tremendous speed. During the 40 weeks of pregnancy and beyond, the expectant / new mother undergoes several physical, psychological, emotional and cognitive changes. She has to constantly adjust to, and cope with all the transitions, some which are beyond their control and may cause discomfort. Some adapt well to pregnancy and post related changes and do not demonstrate significant difficulties. But many women need support to cope with the challenges accompanied with multiple life stressors and accept the various stages of pregnancy and postpartum with greater ease. When these transitions are complicated by issues such as trauma, and pregnancy loss, the need for mental health providers and obstetrics/gynecology to partner becomes particularly critical. The expectant / new mother undergoes several physical, hormonal, emotional and cognitive changes which can create stress specially in first time mothers. Too much stress can cause trouble sleeping, headaches, loss of appetite, risk of infections, all of which can be harmful to the mother and the developing or new born baby.

How do we help

We provide behavioral health consultations to patients where required, facilitating a mental wellbeing engagement for women during and post their pregnancy. We also offer self-care skills as a new parent along with psycho-educational counselling on mental health in pregnancy, tips on nurturing the relationship with their partner while caring for an infant and even helps navigating intergenerational relationships as a new parent. Thus we ease the transition as an expecting or new Mom. We offer Perinatal mental care which includes emotional support for women and couples who are having a difficult time adjusting to the new changes brought about by pregnancy and/or motherhood. It can help you understand your feelings, reframe expectations, elicit resources and support as needed, and thus prepare for the anticipated changes. It also enables to normalize the negative feelings about becoming a mother, offer practical ways to achieve sufficient sleep, attend to self-care, and nurture a healthy relationship in the context of parenthood.