What Is Postpartum Anxiety?
Postpartum anxiety, or PPA, is a mental health condition following childbirth characterised by excessive and persistent worry, stress, fear and tension. The focus of this worry is often your baby’s safety, your own ability as a parent, and/or potential catastrophic outcomes.
Anxiety is an essential part of being human. It helps us detect threats in our environment. Without it, we could be unsafe. Imagine you’re about to cross a road and a car comes speeding round the corner towards you. If you didn’t have the ability to feel anxiety, you’d continue to walk across the road and potentially be harmed or even killed by the speeding car.
A healthy, manageable amount of anxiety can also improve your focus and performance, helping you prepare for things like presentations, exams, or job interviews. However, anxiety becomes a problem when the symptoms are so excessive and persistent, they begin to negatively impact your day-to-life.
Examples of Anxious Thoughts in New Mums
Anxious thoughts tend to be biased towards the negative, where we overestimate the threat and underestimate our ability to cope with it. Anxious thoughts are generally future focused about things that may happen, and they’re usually based on the worst-case scenario. These are sometimes called ‘catastrophic thoughts’.
More often than not, anxious thoughts are automatic. This means we aren’t thinking about having an anxious thought, it just pops into our mind. They can show up as a thought, an image or even a memory of something bad that has happened in the past.
Here are some common examples of anxious thoughts experienced by new mums:
- Anxiety about childbirth and/or postpartum recovery. This can be linked to previous birth trauma, or it can be completely unrelated.
- Anxiety about yours or your baby’s health. This may be more likely if you’ve experienced a traumatic birth or baby loss.
- Anxiety and intrusive thoughts about harm being caused to you or your baby.
- Feeling anxious about weaning your baby.
- Anxiety around specific things such as blood, needles, or vomit.
- Anxiety related to socialising and being around other people.
- Anxiety about meeting your own unrelenting high standards e.g. sticking to a rigid routine or getting your baby to sleep through the night.
Who is at Risk?
Did you know anxiety is more prevalent than depression in the postpartum period? About 15% of women will experience a significant anxiety problem during pregnancy or the first year postnatally.
This is totally understandable given how much is happening at this time. New mums are navigating huge hormonal shifts alongside changes in their relationships, work, and home life. Pregnancy, birth and the postpartum period are also filled with uncertainties.
I find women who like to be in control of things can find pregnancy and having a baby very difficult because the whole experience is characterised by a complete absence of control. You may also be more prone to postpartum anxiety if you’ve had problems with anxiety before. If you’d describe yourself as ‘a worrier’ or someone who’s always been an anxious person, it makes sense that having a baby may trigger this pre-existing anxiety to show up.
What are the Signs & Symptoms to Look Out For?
Anxiety is your body’s alarm system that’s triggered when we perceive a threat. The brain and nervous system respond in almost the same way when presented with an actual threat (such as someone running towards you with a weapon) and a perceived threat (for example, worrying about giving birth and how you’ll cope with a newborn).
Anxiety can affect your thoughts and emotions, your body, and your behaviour. Some people may notice they’re feeling anxious because of certain physical sensations, for example muscle tension, headaches, or a racing heart. Others may be aware their mind is racing with lots of anxious thoughts. Alternatively, they may notice they want to avoid certain situations that make them anxious and start changing how they go about daily life as a result.
Anxious thoughts have a huge impact on how we feel. They often make us feel worried, nervous, panicky and even scared of danger or harm coming to us or the people around us.
Here are some other signs and symptoms to look out for:
- Physical symptoms like sweating, feeling or being sick, shaking, feeling irritable, having trouble concentrating, and butterflies in your tummy. These symptoms can be very uncomfortable and even quite frightening to some, but they are harmless and will pass eventually.
- Avoiding certain people, situations or activities that make you feel anxious.
- Only going out or putting yourself in certain situations if you have an escape plan in case things start to feel difficult or overwhelming.
- Excessive reassurance seeking from friends, your partner, or the internet.
Some of these behaviours make sense and give you temporary relief, but over time, they start to become a problem and need addressing.
Therapy for Postpartum Anxiety
The recommended treatment for postpartum anxiety is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). When symptoms of anxiety have been triggered by a traumatic event, I’ve also used EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing) Therapy successfully.
I’m trained in both CBT and EMDR. The beauty of this is that I tend to draw upon both approaches with my clients depending on their individual needs and preferences.
Therapy for New Mums
If you’re struggling with postpartum anxiety or any other aspect of motherhood, I can help. Reach out for support by booking a consultation here or subscribe to The Nurture Toolkit for free, actionable tips and prompts straight to your inbox. I also share lots of encouragement and support via Instagram.