Center for Integral Pregnancy & Childbirth

07/11/2023

06/18/2023

05/04/2023

Did you know that in many countries 1 in 5 new mothers experience some type of perinatal mental health disorder, like postpartum depression, postpartum anxiety, OCD, PTSD, etc. 1 in 5!
People…The stigma needs to be washed away!

In my view, the causes and conditions of Perinatal Mood Disorders are multifaceted— some are physical, some are mental, others are emotional, relational, cultural, and/or situational. However, this also means to me that there are a variety of ways that Perinatal Mood Disorders can be supported and people can be helped— but help IS needed. We need each other! New moms and parents need us—family and friend support, community and peer support, medical and mental health support, as well as a shift of the societal expectations on new parents.

Let’s normalize the admission that it is hard! Hopefully it’s wonderful and beautiful too! But—the transition into parenthood is often one of the most challenging times of a person’s life. It’s almost always the sharpest learning curve of a person’s life, and it’s completely under supported and misunderstood by society. But help is available and in my dream for maternal mental health, moms don’t just survive, they thrive!

https://www.postpartum.net/get-help/

04/19/2022

You can feel like you are losing them during the teenage years, even though they're right there in front of you.

One day, you are laughing and getting along, the next you feel like you are sitting with a stranger you don't know in the least.

They might be unrecognizable, growing six inches in a span of six months.

They might have changed personalities, from sweet and loving to salty and stoic.

They might have changed their interests, their focus, their dreams.

You lose them to their phones. You lose them to their rooms. You lose them to their friends, their activities, their jobs.

You may feel desperate to cling to the child you once knew, the one who adored you, the one you got along with, the one whose hand you thought you'd hold forever.

You may feel like crying from their constant rejection. You may feel lost when you can't get them back on track. You may feel insignificant when they ignore you or lash out.

You will grow impatient with the status of your relationship. You will feel frustrated with the push and pull. You will grieve what is no longer there.

You will pull back. You will say less. You will watch from afar.

You will take whatever interaction you can get even if it is always on their terms.

You will pick and choose your battles because you are tired of so many battles.

You will try to stay available even though they are mostly unavailable.

And then one day when you least expect it, you will feel something shift.

You’ll see glimpses of the person they are becoming, and you begin to look forward to seeing what they will do with their life.

You start to learn about their new interests, their new passions, their new sense of self.

You will begin building a new relationship, one where you are no longer their sun. Your job is to be their moon, connected by a force so strong that it will never break. You will follow them along, providing light in their darkest moments, direction when needed. Sometimes your presence is large and looming, and sometimes it is small, barely seen by the naked eye. But you will always be there.

It won't be perfect. It won't be what it was.

But if you can survive losing your teen for a little bit, what happens when they come back to you can be even more beautifull.

❤ Written by Whitney Fleming Writes

02/01/2022

I often refer to the Postpartum transition as the sharpest learning curve of someone’s life. 💜

“It’s all fun and games
And sexy breathing exercises for birth
And romantic plans about how he’ll take the baby while you do yoga every day

Until you’re 10 days postpartum
Still bleeding and soaked in breastmilk
Riding a roller coaster of hormones and sleep deprivation
And your lovely partner forgets to pick up a smoothie on his way home from the grocery store

And you lose your sh✨t
Like sobbing into the bathroom sink
Like cursing his mother
Like wondering why you ever procreated with someone capable of such unimaginable selfishness

And then, when the storm has passed, and you’ve had a snack- you realize
Two shaky, raw, sleep deprived humans
Trying to be life rafts for one another
While sinking into the depths of exhaustion and stress
Keeping the tiniest, most fragile, precious being afloat
Is hard AF

We weren’t meant to do this alone
We were not meant to be sent out to sea on a tiny little life boat with no map
Even the most loving, stable partnership can sink under the weight of operating in survival mode while finding your footing as parents

So, if you’re out there, treading water
Buried in laundry and breastmilk
Surviving on freezer pizza and three hours of sleep
Thinking mildly unkind thoughts about the person you chose to parent with
Because he can’t seem to calm the baby or remember your smoothies or grasp the depths of the earth shaking transition you’re navigating
You’re not alone
And it will get easier
One sleepy, shaky day at a time.”
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