Bumpanxiety

15/02/2026

FOCUS ON PARENTING

🌿 All Mums and Dads bring strengths to their role, whether they are natural or learned skills.

🌱 All parents also bring limitations – we all have things we aren’t so good at, things we are still learning, or things we don’t enjoy.

🧠 Thing is, our brains are biased to focus on things that aren’t so good. It’s called the ‘negativity bias’. That means that we tend to focus our attention for longer on negative experiences, negative comments from others or ourselves, and negative feelings. It serves an evolutionary function so that we focus on possible threats.

💥 Our negativity bias can also show up in parenting.

😕 And guess what? When we are struggling, fatigued, depressed, anxious or recovering from a difficult journey to parenthood, our natural positive spark is diminished and there is plenty for our negativity bias to grab hold of.

🌩️ Sometimes Mums and Dads find it hard to see what they are doing well, especially when they are not so confident in their parenting.

At the Centre for Perinatal Psychology, we commonly support parents in their parenting journey with a little one and we hold a strengths-based position.

🌈 We see the many things you do so well as a Mum or Dad, like all the colours in the rainbow. Even when you can’t see them, we can. And we can highlight those positive interactions to you, so you can see all those colours too.

⛅️ We can show you when your negativity bias might show up when parenting your baby and we help to challenge that bias.

🌪️ We will also take seriously any parenting limitations and work with you to soften those, building skills to increase your parenting competence, which is so important to feeling good about yourself as a Mum or Dad.

✅ We are trained to help you to see the things you are doing well, and we work together to strengthen the parenting limitations you bring.

👉 Help is at hand, reach out to us for support: https://www.centreforperinatalpsychology.com.au

🎨 Original artwork by Jess Racklyft for the Centre for Perinatal Psychology

15/02/2026

15/02/2026

SPEAKING FOR THE BABY CAMPAIGN

🩷 We love advocating for babies.

👀 At the Centre for Perinatal Psychology, we help parents ‘see’ their baby with fresh eyes, and understand how their baby communicates.

👶 Babies have their own language and ways of communicating and it’s up to us to read them. Some babies are clear and easy to understand and some babies need more patient decoding!

🤔 One of things we love doing and encourage parents to do, is to curiously wonder about what is going on inside for their baby. We like to wonder about their minds – what they might be sensing, feeling, thinking, wanting, needing, experiencing. And if we were to put that into words, well, we’d be ‘speaking for the baby’!

🗣️ The idea of speaking for the baby came from another baby-devotee, an American psychoanalyst and social worker, Selma Fraiberg. When working with parents and babies she found that putting words on what the baby might be experiencing helped parents orient their minds to their baby’s mind. This helped them understand, get-to-know and enjoy their babies more.

🌱 So here we are, decades later with our attempt to put words on the infant’s experience: To think about babies and how they might experience being in the world.

✅ Our Speaking for the Baby Campaign is a series of illustrations bringing voice to the infant’s experience, along with downloadable handouts with description around the illustrations.

🙌 These are resources that can be widely shared, but they must remain in original form and maintain our Centre for Perinatal Psychology logo.

✅ We think this campaign might be helpful for parents and the professionals involved in parent and infant care – and ultimately for babies!

👶 We recognise that while babies are very vulnerable and needy, they also have great capacities. They speak to us in so many ways – listen out and you’ll hear…

Written and created by Dr Bronwyn Leigh with illustrations by Jess Racklyeft for the Centre for Perinatal Psychology

🛟 Need more support?
We have you covered. Centre for Perinatal Psychology is a network of 100+ perinatal psychologists around Australia.

💛 We love supporting expectant and new parents in their journey. At the Centre for Perinatal Psychology we are interested in the wellbeing of all members of your family, whatever that constellation may be – mother, father, infant, siblings, grandparents. We consider the impact of struggles on all members of the family – having a baby is a family affair.
www.centreforperinatalpsychology.com.au

15/02/2026

15/02/2026

Share in the comments what you did to find meaning after loss.

After a loss, so many families struggle with what is their new normal. And finding meaning.

We often hear of families having career changes, taking up new challenges or simply finding meaning in little things.

This month's Ways to be Ok Forum will explore Finding Meaning After Loss.

Sign up for this free session.

Link in first comment

15/02/2026

10/02/2026

So many of us say we just want our children to be happy.

It sounds simple.
Harmless, even.
Like the most natural wish a parent could have.

But happiness, on its own, is a moving target.
It comes and goes.
It depends on circumstances, moods,
outcomes, and other people.
And when it becomes the main goal,
children can start to feel like something is
wrong whenever they’re not feeling good.

They learn to avoid hard emotions.
To hide disappointment.
To pretend they’re okay when they’re not.
To chase approval instead of authenticity.

A full, healthy life isn’t built on constant happiness.
It’s built on the ability to feel, to recover,
to stay true to yourself, and to keep going
when things don’t work out.

Because when children learn those things,
happiness stops being the goal…

and instead it becomes a natural byproduct
of a life they can actually handle. ❤️

Quote Credit: ❣️

Follow & for more

01/02/2026

🌟What sort of care will help you today?



Image: .brainhealth.doctor

19/01/2026

Self-compassion is key to a happy and fulfilling life. Here are five practical ways to be kind to yourself:

Ask yourself what you need: Acknowledge that your needs are valid.

Validate your pain: Recognize and accept your emotional experience.

Remember you aren’t alone: We all struggle; you’re not isolated in your challenges.

Honor your humanity: Being human means being imperfect.

Treat yourself like you would treat a friend: Be supportive and helpful toward yourself.

Which of these practices resonates with you today? Share your thoughts below!

19/12/2025

The holiday season can be a time of joy, connection, and also stress. These self-compassion phrases are gentle reminders to nurture yourself during this busy time. Save this post to use whenever you need a moment to pause and reconnect with kindness. 💛

Which phrase speaks to you most? Share in the comments!

17/12/2025