ABSTRACT

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|33 pages

Helpful Information – Empowering You with Education

chapter Chapter 1|4 pages

How to Get the Most Out of this Workbook

chapter Chapter 2|8 pages

What's Going on with Me?

Breaking Down the Difference between Baby Blues and Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders

chapter Chapter 3|11 pages

Learning More about Your Moods

No, Seriously, What's Going on with Me?

chapter Chapter 4|8 pages

Risk Factors and Screening

Why Me, and what Next?

part II|70 pages

Building Tangible Skills to Help You Weather the Storm

chapter Chapter 5|15 pages

Sleep and Self-Care

Tangible ways to Climb out of the Black Hole

chapter Chapter 6|8 pages

Attachment and Bonding

Creating a Secure Foundation with Your Baby while in the Middle of Your Storm

chapter Chapter 7|13 pages

Mom Guilt and other Mind Battles

How to Manage Your Thoughts, Moods, and Behaviors Using Cognitive Behavioral Skills

chapter Chapter 8|8 pages

Manage Awful thoughts

Name Your Dragon to Slay Your Dragon

chapter Chapter 9|12 pages

Role Changes, Support, and Communication

Strengthen Your Village

chapter Chapter 10|12 pages

Mindfulness, Meditation, and Relaxation

How to Quiet the Storm within

part III|39 pages

Additional Factors – Aspects of Your Life That Can Impact Your Mood

chapter Chapter 11|9 pages

Embracing more of You

Culture, Identity, and Mental Health

chapter Chapter 12|6 pages

How's Your Partner Doing?

(Yes, they can Struggle Too!)

chapter Chapter 13|10 pages

Crying, Low Sex Drive, Irritability and More

How Your Hormonal and Biological Changes Impact Your Emotions

chapter Chapter 14|12 pages

A Tough Situation Just Got Tougher

How Parenting a Child with Health Issues can Impact Your Mood

part IV|19 pages

What's Next?

chapter Chapter 15|8 pages

From Ambivalent to Terrified and Everything in between

Creating an Empowering Postpartum Plan for the Next Pregnancy

chapter Chapter 16|9 pages

So What Now?

Treatment Options