The Blog
Thoughts, insights, and resources.
May is World Maternal Mental Health Month. Let’s talk about it, this month and always!
We often talk about the transition of the baby but we rarely focus on the transition of the mother. There is a name for this: matrescence. Much like adolescence, matrescence is a period of intense hormonal, physical, and emotional shifting.
Motherhood can touch our relationship with our selves, our bodies, our friends, our partnerships, our families, our work, really every piece of our identity. When a baby is born, a mother is also born and that birth can be both disorienting and beautiful.
As a perinatal therapist, it is my joy and privilege to spend my days focused on supporting individuals this enormous life transition. As much as I love my 1:1 work, I also think it can be helpful to look at the numbers to get a sense of the larger picture:
- 1 in 5: Perinatal mood and anxiety disorders (PMADs) impact 20% of women, making them the #1 complication of childbirth.
- 7 in 10: An estimated 70% of women downplay or hide their symptoms, often due to the narrative that we must enjoy every moment.
- 3 in 4: Despite being highly treatable, nearly 75% of women impacted by maternal mental health conditions remain undiagnosed and untreated.
If you are having a hard time, please know that you aren’t alone. It’s not your fault. Support is out there.
There can be so many pressures and opinions that come with motherhood: how we birth, how we feed our babies, how we support our babies sleep, how we decide to work in or out of the home, and the list goes on. As a first time mom, I remember being up all night checking my babies breathing, being a regular 3AM Googler of every question and concern, and feeling terrified to do anything wrong. My love for my baby was overwhelming and so was my anxiety. I had a hard time silencing all the noise and trusting myself as a mother.
My own maternal mental health has been a journey, and I think it always will be. I want to continue evolving to be the best me for me and for my three little ones. Maybe matrescence is a forever process.
My own experience coupled with many years of supporting other families with little ones even before I had my own has made me so deeply passionate about this work. Mothers are superheroes and deserve all the love, tenderness, and care that we offer to their little ones. We are all becoming.
If you’re having a hard time with this chapter of motherhood, please hear me when I say again: you are not alone. You are a wonderful mother.
I’ll leave you with a loving-kindness meditation that I find helpful when things are feeling heavy. Take a deep breath, place a hand on your heart, and repeat:
"May you be happy."
"May you be healthy."
"May you be at ease."
"May you find the support you need."
You are doing a great job. Even on the days it doesn"t feel like it.
And if you need support or are looking for someone to walk this journey with you, please feel free to reach out to schedule a consultation. I would be honored to hold the space for you to feel, to be fully yourself, to process, to heal, and to continue your becoming.