Pregnancy and life with a new baby can bring feelings you did not expect. You may feel overwhelmed, worried, sad, or disconnected, even when you love your baby. You deserve care for your emotional health throughout pregnancy and after birth. Depression and anxiety during this time are treatable, and support can help you feel better.
Understanding Maternal Mental Health
Maternal mental health includes your emotional well-being during pregnancy and after childbirth. It affects how you feel, cope with stress, connect with others, and manage daily life. “Postpartum” simply means the time after giving birth; it does not mean that someone has depression.
Depression can start during pregnancy or in the weeks and months after birth, including within the first year. Anxiety can also develop during pregnancy or afterward. You can experience both, and help is available, even if you have never had a mental health concern before.
What Causes Maternal Mental Health Issues?
There is no single cause. Estrogen and progesterone levels fall quickly after childbirth, and these hormonal changes may contribute to mood symptoms. Physical recovery, interrupted sleep, and the demands of caring for a baby can add strain. A difficult birth, money or relationship stress, limited support, and a personal or family history of depression may also increase risk. But ultimately, these conditions can happen to any mother.
The Baby Blues vs. Postpartum Depression
The baby blues can involve mild tearfulness, worry, and mood changes in the first days after birth. These symptoms usually ease within two weeks. Postpartum depression involves more persistent or intense symptoms that can affect daily life and impede your ability to care for yourself or your baby.
Reach out if symptoms last longer than two weeks, get worse, or interfere with daily life. You can ask for help sooner, and severe symptoms need prompt attention.
Signs That You May Need Support
Depression and anxiety can look different from person to person. You might notice:
- Sadness, hopelessness, or losing interest in things you usually enjoy.
- Worry that is hard to manage or feeling constantly uneasy.
- Feeling unusually irritable or angry.
- Difficulty concentrating or keeping up with basic daily tasks.
- Changes in sleep or appetite, including trouble sleeping when you have the chance.
- Feeling disconnected from your baby or struggling to bond.
- Unwanted, upsetting thoughts or feeling that you are failing as a parent.
A healthcare provider can help you understand what these symptoms mean. You do not need to diagnose yourself before reaching out.
Getting Better Is Possible.
With appropriate treatment, symptoms often improve, and you can feel more like yourself again. Treatment may include counseling, medication, or both. Counseling can help you work through difficult feelings and develop ways to cope. A provider can also discuss medication options, including the benefits and risks of using medication during pregnancy or breastfeeding. Recovery takes different amounts of time for different people. Follow-up care helps your provider adjust treatment as needed.
Help with meals, household tasks, and baby care can make room for rest and treatment. These supports can be part of recovery, alongside professional care.
Taking The First Step
Contact your OB-GYN, midwife, primary care provider, or a mental health professional. You can also tell your baby’s healthcare provider. Keep postpartum appointments, and contact your care team sooner if you are concerned. You might say, “I have not been feeling like myself, and I would like help with my mental health.”
Explain when the changes started and how they affect your day. Ask about a mental health screening and next steps. If making the call feels difficult, ask someone you trust to help. If cost, transportation, childcare, or distance makes care difficult, ask about available assistance or phone and video appointments.
How Partners And Family Can Help
Ask how she is feeling and listen without judgment. Offer specific help, such as bringing a meal, caring for the baby while she rests, or helping her get to an appointment. Check in regularly and encourage professional support when symptoms persist or worsen.
Find Local Support
Memorial Hospital of Converse County Behavioral Health
Call 307-298-4661 to ask about care for pregnancy or postpartum mental health concerns and how to schedule an appointment. Visit Memorial Hospital of Converse County.
Converse County Public Health
Douglas: 307-358-2536
Glenrock: 307-436-3474
Public Health offers maternal and child health services, home visiting for pregnant and parenting families, and breastfeeding education and support. Call to discuss available services and connections to care. Public Health Services and Contacts.
Find National Info & Resources
- Maternal Mental Health — Health Resources and Services Administration
- Perinatal Depression — National Institute of Mental Health
- Postpartum Depression — Office on Women’s Health
- Postpartum Depression Treatment — Mayo Clinic
- Steps For Getting Help During Pregnancy and After Birth — NICHD
Talk To Someone Now
National Maternal Mental Health Hotline
Call or text 1-833-TLC-MAMA (1-833-852-6262).
Free, confidential support is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in English and Spanish. Trained counselors can listen, offer support, and help connect you with care. Partners and family members can reach out, too. You can call even if you are unsure what kind of help you need. Visit the maternal mental health hotline.
When To Get Urgent Help
If you have thoughts of suicide or self-harm, get help right away. Call 988 or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline for crisis support. If you might act on thoughts of harming yourself or your baby, or cannot keep yourself or your baby safe, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency department.
Severe confusion, hearing or seeing things others do not, or strongly believing things that are not true may be signs of postpartum psychosis. This is rare and is a medical emergency. Call 911 or seek emergency care immediately. If you are supporting someone with these symptoms, stay with her and have another trusted adult care for the baby while help is arranged.
You can ask for support at any point. Start with a call to your provider or the maternal mental health hotline.