A Safe Space for Perinatal Mental Health.
Articles informed by research, lived experience, and reflection, to empower you to understand and navigate the journey of perinatal mental health
Making sense of your mental health
in pregnancy and postpartum — together.
Welcome to this safe space for perinatal mental health. Wherever you are in your journey, you’re not alone — this is a place to feel seen, understood, and supported.
The blog combines research with lived experience to help you navigate the complexities of perinatal mental health with gentleness and understanding, offering guidance, insights, and stories you can relate to.
Explore the categories below to discover what I wish I’d known and what I’ve learned along the way. Topics include mental ill health, getting help, coping strategies, pregnancy and early parenthood, and navigating the system.
FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY.
FOR MEDICAL ADVICE, DIAGNOSIS, OR SUPPORT, PLEASE CONSULT A PROFESSIONAL.
find what you’re looking for.
Understand the symptoms and conditions such as anxiety, rage, depression, intrusive thoughts, and more during pregnancy and postpartum.
Discover the types of professional and community support available to you, from GPs and psychologists to therapies and medication.
Tools and strategies to care for yourself, validate your experience, and support your recovery.
Navigate the emotional realities of conception, pregnancy, birth, early parenthood, and everything in between.
Why We Need to Talk About Bipolar Disorder in Pregnancy and Postpartum.
When you think about maternal mental health, does bipolar disorder even come to mind? Pregnancy and postpartum include an increased vulnerability to the onset or recurrence of bipolar disorder, yet screening in antenatal and postnatal settings tends to only focus on depression. This is a missed opportunity, meaning bipolar disorder remains underdetected and undertreated in the perinatal period. So let’s talk about what bipolar disorder is and why it needs to be part of the conversation.
More than postpartum: mental health in pregnancy.
As the host and founder of Perinatal Stories Australia, I have the honour of interviewing mothers about what is often the hardest time of their life, during what is supposed to be the best time of their life. Something I hear far too often is how the symptoms of mental ill health in pregnancy were largely ignored - even by mothers themselves. It's just hormones, right? Maybe birth anxiety? This will all go away when the baby is here... won't it? And yet as a society and in health circles, the focus is usually only on postpartum. This needs to change.
