The Pregnancy and Postpartum Mood Workbook

The Guide to Surviving Your Emotions When Having a Baby

Bethany Warren, Beth Creager Berger

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000453034
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Psychotherapy
• Index: Psychology

This book helps you throughout your pregnancy and postpartum/postnatal recovery. By helping you understand what you are feeling, and teaching you empirically validated new skills so you can manage your changing moods, you can work toward feeling better.

Becoming a new parent is one of the biggest changes one can face in life. You are experiencing enormous changes biologically, hormonally, and emotionally. Your whole life may seem uprooted. It makes sense that you might be feeling significant mood changes as well. With one out of five mothers and one out of ten partners experiencing depression and anxiety when having a baby, this workbook will remind you that you are not alone.

This workbook is written with sleep-deprived new parents in mind, providing helpful information in short, digestible segments. These are intermixed with thought-provoking activities such as brief journaling prompts and suggestions for tangible steps to make small, realistic changes. You can pick it up and put it down, reading it on your timing, without the information becoming overwhelming. The workbook covers the entire range of mood symptoms, from the Baby Blues, to anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, PTSD, OCD, and more.

The Pregnancy and Postpartum Mood Workbook uses inclusive language and content applicable to all new parents. There are chapters uniquely dedicated to building attachment, managing awful thoughts, bringing awareness to your partner's mental health, parenting babies in the NICU or with medical issues, and exploring culture, identity, and mental health. There is also a resource section with a wide array of support available to meet the needs of any parent. Adoptive and single parents, LGBTQ+ and heterosexual parents, as well as clinicians and birth workers will find this book to be an invaluable resource.

Part I

Helpful Information – Empowering You with Education

CHAPTER 1

HOW TO GET THE MOST OUT OF THIS WORKBOOK

DOI: 10.4324/9781003144021-2

The world has gone dark more times than you or your mother or your grandmother can remember. And every hurricane that was meant to be the end of it all has instead ended in sunshine again. So, believe me when I say: You will survive this. And the next one too.

– World’s End, by Nikita Gill

Welcome to our book, and we are so glad that you found it! Whether you are pregnant or a postpartum parent, a mental health clinician, an advocate or someone worried about a loved one going through this potentially tough time, we are glad you are here. You are not alone.

Let’s face it. It is really normal to feel like your moods are all over the place during your pregnancy and after having a baby. It can be common to be frustrated with the emotions you are experiencing, and maybe you are even a bit freaked out. You might wonder if you will ever be your normal self again (or even wonder if you are experiencing something more serious, like Postpartum or Postnatal Depression that you keep hearing about).

In our practices, pregnant and postpartum women often ask us: “Why am I feeling this way?” “What did I do to cause this?” and “What is wrong with me?” Women often prepare so much for their pregnancies. Some dream about them since childhood, fantasizing about how they will feel, act, and look, and certainly no one dreams about the depression and anxiety they may experience.

Have you found that your partner’s chewing is driving you nuts all of a sudden? Do you find yourself crying at absolutely nothing or cheesy commercials? Or more seriously, have you struggled to get out of bed or found worries going round and around in your head like a hamster wheel? What we’re getting at is that all women experience some change in their moods during pregnancy and after having a baby. With this workbook, we will help you manage whatever emotions you are experiencing. We will also give you strategies to address symptoms that have a more significant impact on your functioning.

Whatever you are experiencing is common and treatable. You are not alone. Mood changes are typical and approximately 15–21% of women experience depression and anxiety symptoms during and after pregnancy (Wisner et al., 2013) and wait for it … even 10% of new dads and partners experience these symptoms too (Paulson & Bazemore, 2010; Trenton et al., 2005).

Did You Know?

• The label “Postpartum Depression” is misleading.
• Mood symptoms can actually occur during pregnancy, not just in the postpartum period.
• Anxiety symptoms are actually more common than depression symptoms both during and after pregnancy.
• Currently, the descriptor is “Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders.”

Sadly, many women do not receive help for these symptoms (Barney et al., 2006; Byrne, 2000; Corrigan, 2004). These symptoms can last well over a year if untreated and there is no reason for women to suffer alone or for a prolonged period of time (Thurgood et al., 2009). These emotions you might be experiencing can be painful. But most of the time these are temporary and treatable, and we celebrate your first steps toward taking care of yourself! Through this workbook, you will see you are not alone, and you deserve to feel better. This workbook will help you get there.

You may have mild mood changes that come and go (and do not greatly impact your functioning) or more severe symptoms that have really thrown you for a loop and meet the criteria for an actual Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorder (PMAD). We will go into the difference between them in the next chapter. For now, we want to introduce you to our workbook so that you can get the most out of it and learn skills to navigate through what can be a difficult time.

WHY This Book

We both specialize in perinatal mental health and much of our practices are made up of pregnant and postpartum parents. We found that there are so many great books for pregnant and post-partum women out there, but our clients were often sheepishly (or adamantly) admitting to us that they were having a hard time reading some of them because they lacked the concentration needed to conquer a weighty book; sleep deprivation does a number on attention span! It’s quite difficult to slog through even the best book when you’re so frazzled you barely remember the last time you went to the bathroom or are so tired you keep nodding off when you’re up feeding the baby.

We started working together on creating and sharing the exercises we often use with clients, and our “labor of love” began. We wanted to create a workbook with small, readable sections that you could pick up and put down and that interweaves easily with your busy life (and exhausted brain!). We wanted you to have concrete strategies in order to make small changes in your mood over time. Over many, many cups of coffee, technical growing pains with document sharing sites and good old fashioned writing marathon sessions, this workbook was created.

Mostly, we want you to know that it is ok to not feel ok during this time. It is common to not feel ok. You are not alone and by working on yourself you will get better.

HOW to Use This Book

We get it. You are probably either pregnant “out to here”, sleep deprived with a new baby, or just trying to manage being a new parent. It is common for pregnant and new parents to get overwhelmed. In addition, you may be noticing a tremendous shift in your mood and wondering if you will ever get YOU back. This workbook was designed to be used “as needed” – you do not need to read it from cover to cover (though don’t let us stop you!). This is not a one-size-fits-all workbook. It is designed to help you with what you are going through.

Work on activities at your own pace because we know you’re exhausted and might have a very small concentration span at this point. We get it. We designed the workbook activities with this “squirrel brain” in mind.

This workbook can be used alone. It is designed to be user friendly so that you can work on the activities by yourself. However, we recommend that if you identify as having symptoms of a PMAD, that you work with a therapist, in which case this workbook can be a helpful adjunct to therapy and/or medication. How can you identify if you’re having symptoms of a PMAD? Please go to Chapter 4: Risk Factors and Screening. Where can you find professional help? Please go to the Resources Chapter.

And, of course, if you are having any serious thoughts requiring immediate help, which include urges to harm yourself or somebody else, then this workbook is not for you right now. Even though these thoughts can be frightening, they are treatable. If you are experiencing these thoughts or urges, please call your doctor, your local emergency number, or one of the following numbers:

• US National Suicide Hotline [phone]
• UK Samaritans Crisis Line 116 123
• Text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor in the US and Canada, 85258 in the UK, and 50808 in Ireland.

How Would I Know If I Need Immediate Help?

• If you are having any urges to hurt yourself or anyone else.
• If you are hearing or seeing things that other people are not.
• If you are not able to consistently sleep or eat.
• If you are not able to take care of your own or your baby’s basic needs.

A Note on Examples

We use a lot of examples throughout the book so that you can feel validated and know that you are not alone. We sometimes use our friends’ stories with permission, though purposefully chose not to use our clients’ stories in order to protect their privacy. However, after forty plus years of practice between us, there may accidentally be some unintentional similarities with prior clients’ lives. We are grateful to all of our clients; you inspire us and working with you has been a gift.

A Note on Language

We purposefully wrote an inclusive workbook that any new parent can use after having a baby, or upon becoming a new parent. We also recognize that there are many types of parents and numerous paths toward becoming a parent. We want all parents to feel represented in this book. Because the majority of research on perinatal mental health is focused on cisgender mothers, as a result, we often use the term “moms and mothers” throughout this book. However, we do try to use the terms “parents and partners” as much as possible and try to use the most updated language...