Fertility, Pregnancy, & Post-partum
Alongside the excitement and joy that can come with the entire experience of having a baby, there are often so many additional emotional experiences that we don’t talk about…
- The sometimes seemingly endless waiting and anxiety of trying to conceive
- The fear around potential fertility problems as month after month passes, and the guilt or shame that it feels like there’s something “wrong with you”
- The grief that your pregnancy journey may not be what you pictured
- The comparisons to those around you or on social media and how unfair it feels when it seems that everyone around you is announcing pregnancies
- The loneliness that can come with feeling that no one understand the pain you’re experiencing
- The crushing agony of a pregnancy loss
- The distress with wondering how our country’s shifting politics may affect your pregnancy journey and the health of you and your baby
- The disconnection you may feel from your partner as you’re trying to navigate these difficult waters together
- Even when you receive good news, the constant worry that something will go wrong
- The weight of looming responsibility you’ll have once your baby is born
- The overwhelm of adjusting to postpartum life
- The seemingly inexplicable shifts in mood from high highs to low lows and back again
- The potential loss of “self” in the context of your new role as a parent
There can be so much pressure to see pregnancy and parenthood as a solely joyful experience – and I do hope that there is an abundance of joy along the way. However, I know that it is simplistic and dismissive of so many people’s experiences to not acknowledge all of the anxiety, pain, grief, comparisons, and loneliness that can come with this stage in your life as well.
You deserve to be deeply seen and understood no matter what combination of emotions you’re experiencing – no matter where you are in your trying to conceive/fertility/pregnancy/postpartum journey. I know that you know that I, nor anyone else, can “fix” what you’re going through. But I truly believe that through genuine connection with a therapist, a safe space to explore these emotions, and an array of tools to help ride the waves of these experiences, we can walk through a perinatal journey with a bit more self-compassion and self-assurance.