A day in the Life of a Newborn
Eat, sleep, poop, cry. That’s pretty much it. Except it isn’t. There are so many new things to discover about the tiny person you have created and the new role of parenting you have embarked on. Eat Babies can feed 8-12 times in 24 hours. They may cluster feed, where they will feed lots of […]
How to Communicate Effectively with our Partner
Communication is the basis of all our relationships and interactions with other humans. When we are born, our only form of communication is crying, a nonspecific means of trying to meet our needs. As we develop language, we are more able to assert our needs and wants. This comes not only from the words we […]
An open conversation about breastfeeding
Speaking from the perspective of a midwife and a mother who struggled greatly with breastfeeding, the biggest thing I would like to encourage is open conversation about breastfeeding and parenting in general. People have a baby, and they don’t know what to expect and have never seen feeding and parenting in reality. We get such […]
Could you experience birth trauma?
Many things can happen in unexpected ways during the process of being pregnant, having a baby, and becoming a mother. Some of them will be unavoidable. Some of them might be created by the systems we have in place for birthing. Some of them will be informed by thought patterns and beliefs we have held […]
The Importance of Meeting Your Baby’s Needs:
Empowering New Parents. A message to fellow parents and soon-to-be parents that may need to hear this! I don’t often write for this blog, but recently, I was at a conference and found a repeated message from new mums to be surprising: the idea that new mums need permission to attend to their baby’s needs. […]
Perinatal Nutrition
Mood and Food – Nutrition During the Perinatal Period. It is now widely understood in the field of nutrition and psychiatry that the way we eat impacts our mood and mental health. Our diets also influence our gut flora/ microbiota, and we now know that our intestines produce most of our body’s serotonin, a neurotransmitter […]
Exercise in the Perinatal Period
In the perinatal period we may be prone to higher-than-normal levels of anxiety and depression. This can change how we feel about ourselves and lead to agitation, feeling stuck in brain fog, low motivation, and difficulty planning forward. This can make taking care of our bodies difficult. If we can manage to get even a […]
Perinatal intrusive thoughts, OCD & psychosis
Intrusive thoughts One of the potential symptoms of postnatal depression/ anxiety is persistent worries about the wellbeing of your baby. These might include repetitive thoughts or images about your baby being hurt or harmed in some way and this can be one of the most difficult symptoms for new parents to endure. Sometimes these thoughts […]
Supporting someone with perinatal mental health symptoms
As the support person of someone experiencing perinatal mental health issues it can be a sensitive space to find yourself. There are many things you can do to make this path easier for yourself and the person you are supporting.