How do I know if I have perinatal depression/ anxiety?

It’s common for parents to feel anxious when they’re expecting a baby - hoping for an uncomplicated pregnancy; nervous about how life will change after the baby arrives.

It’s also common to feel anxious and at times low after the baby arrives. The sleep deprivation is brutal; sometimes the reality doesn’t match expectations; relationships change; parents feel they have “lost” who they were before they had a baby. Burn out is real and it’s hard.

So how do you know if what you’re experiencing is “normal” or is depression/ anxiety? Firstly, if you’re wondering, then it’s probably a good time to talk to your loved ones and a doctor.

Some indications include:

• Persistent and/ or dominant feelings of anxiety or low mood (ie they don’t “come and go”)

• Not being able to experience joy from the things that would normally make you feel happy

• A pervasive sense of there being no hope

• Feeling panicky, including physical symptoms of anxiety such as racing heart, shortness of breath and nausea

• Difficulty sleeping, unrelated to the baby

• Thoughts about hurting yourself or your baby

• Feeling unable to enjoy your baby (it’s normal not to love every moment but important to recognise if that feeling is there most of the time)

• Feeling very irritable or short tempered

• Crying frequently

• Withdrawing from family and friends

• Constant/ obsessive worry about your baby, in particular their health or safety

• Your mood is impacting on your relationships or function at work

  If you are experiencing these, or are otherwise worried that you might have perinatal depression/ anxiety, then reach out for further help from your GP.
  
  Nutured Medical offers Mental Health Appointments