Depression during pregnancy and postnatal depression is a common, but debilitating condition that affects up to one in five women.

If you have ongoing disturbing thoughts and/or feelings of worry and tension that are hard to live with and/or affect your ability to manage from day to day, then you may be experiencing anxiety.

Adjusting to parenthood and life with a newborn brings with it lots of new learning and change.

Even the strongest relationships are strained during the transition to parenthood: research shows 69% of new parents experience conflict, disappointment and hurt feelings.

The loss of a developing or new baby can lead to strong feelings of sadness and grief. Often, however, these emotions that you may experience are minimised or not well understood by our family, friends or others in the community.

During breastfeeding week (and beyond) social media is flooded with beautiful images of women breastfeeding, along with quotes to motivate people to either attempt or continue with breastfeeding. This can be intimidating or isolating for women who are struggling with breastfeeding or who have decided to stop breastfeeding their babes.

As a new parent, it's common to experience disrupted sleep as you attend to your newborn 24/7 for feeding, changing and settling to sleep. The early weeks and months can be intense as you adjust to less sleep and/or broken sleep.

Unfortunately, childbirth doesn’t always go as we may have hoped for, or expected. When things don’t go to plan at the birth this leaves many parents feeling depleted, disappointed and in need of support.

In our society there is a false belief that bonding with our baby will happen immediately, instantly and without any effort.

Parenting young children can be demanding, stressful and full of challenges.

Burnout is most often talked about in relation to the workplace - people feeling burnt-out by occupations like nursing, social work, teaching. A lot of research has gone into looking at jobs that are likely to experience burnout, but we know that burnout can impact parents too.

Not only has your role and place in the world changed since becoming a parent, but so has that of other family members who have become grandparents, aunts and uncles and siblings. In turn this can effect relationships with extended family.

Being pregnant can lead you to experience a wide range of emotions and physical changes.

You may be facing finance, housing, domestic violence or legal issues. We can support you emotionally and link you in with other support services.

You may seeking some help with preparing mentally for the birth of your baby or your parenthood journey.

Returning to work after the birth of your baby can be an exciting but stressful next step. In our service we have heard some variation of each of these statements above. For some women they relish the opportunity to go back to work and want to return as soon as practicable. For others, this return can be a sad and emotional time. And for others, it might be a time of mixed emotion- joy, sadness, stress, anxiety and guilt.

You may have an existing mental health condition like bipolar disorder or a personality disorder.

Embarking on the journey of motherhood introduces a profound “identity shift in motherhood” that many are unprepared for. This transformative phase brings various challenges, from the loss of personal identity to the struggle to find joy amidst the chaos of parenting

Traumatic events are associated with psychological and physical health problems for women in the perinatal period

You may have had OCD before getting pregnant. For some women, pregnancy or birth can be the trigger for the disorder.

OCD has three main parts:

Thoughts or images that keep coming into your mind. These are called obsessions.
Anxiety - usually as a result of the obsessional thoughts.
Thoughts or actions you keep repeating to try to reduce your anxiety. These are called compulsions.

Perinatal borderline personality disorder (BPD) and complex post-traumatic stress disorder (cPTSD) are associated with significant impairment to interpersonal functioning, and risk of intergenerational transmission of psychopathology.

For some women, body changes during pregnancy and the increased focus on weight and shape can result in a relapse of a previous eating disorder. Other expectant mothers may develop an eating disorder such as Bulimia Nervosa for the first time.

Hormonal, physical, and emotional changes during the perinatal period may impact the presentation of ADHD symptoms. ADHD symptoms can be hard to distinguish from other mental health or neurodevelopmental conditions that often co-occur with ADHD, or from life experiences such as
pregnancy. Additionally, female ADHD patients may be more likely to experience premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) and postpartum depression after first childbirth.21

The perinatal period has challenges for autistic women. Sensory demands of the perinatal period are frequently overwhelming; experiencing healthcare as an autistic person is challenging; parenting as an autistic mother has difficulties but also rewards; predictability and control are important in labour and birth. Individualised care with reasonable adjustments can make a difference to the perinatal experiences of autistic women. Despite challenges, autistic women also have many strengths as mothers.

Tokophobia is an extreme fear of childbirth. The condition causes some people to take excessive measures to avoid getting pregnant.

The world can seem very unfair if you are trying to fall pregnant and it’s not happening. Each month it can feel like grief and loss all over again and as time wears on the pain can become more and more difficult. Women who are having fertility problems usually tell us that this issue can become all consuming, impacting on their life in several ways.

When disappointment about the gender of your baby occurs it can be very intense and spiral into depression if unattended to.

A 'rainbow family' might have both parents of the same sex, such as 2 mums or 2 dads. You might become a same-sex parent through adoption, co-parenting, egg or sperm donation or surrogacy. Children who have same-sex parents do as well as any other children in terms of their emotional, social and educational outcomes.

For some, what decision to make about an unplanned pregnancy is clear, for others it can be difficult and confusing.

When deciding what to do about an unplanned pregnancy, it is important to remember that you are the best person to make this decision. You, more than anyone else know what is important to you and what is best for you at this point in your life.

For most people, parenting especially in the early days means enormous highs and lows. Raising a child with special needs involves even greater challenges and demands for parents and carers. Some babies are born with physical and/or intellectual disabilities that will require specialised care during the first weeks of their life and potentially ongoing.

Premature birth – when a baby arrives early – can come as a shock. The early days and weeks can take a huge toll on parents, and have a significant impact on their emotional wellbeing.

When a baby is born prior to 37 weeks gestation, this is known as a preterm birth. Babies born prior to 32 weeks are classified as very preterm. Around 5,000 babies are born very preterm every year in Australia.

Family violence occurs when a person uses aggression, threats, intimidation or force to control a partner or former partner, or other vulnerable family member such as a child. It is mainly committed by men, aims to cause fear, and can happen to anyone, regardless of socio-economic position, age, culture or religion.

Abuse can be verbal or physical including sexual abuse. It can include isolating someone from family and friends, withholding money or family resources, emotional abuse and intimidation such as threats to harm you or others, damage to property, threats towards or actual harm of pets, and threats to commit suicide as a form of manipulation.

Infant mental health is a child's capacity to experience and express emotions, foster relationships, explore the environment and learn. Infant mental health is dynamic and changes over time in response to internal and environmental influences.

People undergoing abortion may experience a range of emotions before, during and after the abortion. Generally, how a person feels, will depend on the reasons for having the abortion, how comfortable they feel about their decision and access to information and support.

Although some people find it stressful, challenging or difficult in the short-term, in many cases these emotions peak before the procedure and resolve soon after, with most people feeling relieved that they made the decision that was right for them at the time.

If you had hoped to become a parent, coming to the realisation that you won’t be able to have a child can be incredibly painful. For many, it follows months or even years of trying for a baby and undergoing infertility treatments.

People who’ve faced these challenges previously, describe that the news can represent the loss of an imagined future – and the life and dreams they had planned.

Morning sickness is one of the most common and unpleasant symptoms of early pregnancy. Despite the name, it can strike at any time of day, leaving expectant mothers feeling overwhelmed, tired, and emotionally drained. Coping with morning sickness goes beyond just addressing the physical symptoms; it's essential to manage the emotional toll it can take on your well-being. In this blog post, we'll explore some strategies to help you cope emotionally with morning sickness during your pregnancy.

While welcoming multiples to your family can be incredibly special, coping with more than one baby is a uniquely challenging experience. If you’re sleep-deprived, torn between the needs of different babies, struggling with breastfeeding, isolation and have no time for self-care, then you’re not alone.

Something that surprises many mums (both new and more ‘experienced’ mums) is the anger that can erupt when parenting their children. Many mums in our therapy rooms have described episodes of anger that are like a red, hot, uncontrollable rage.