Maternal Mental Health Awareness Month by Amber Bond, CCMHC, LCPC, PMH-C, FSG Executive Director

While working in nonprofit administration at a therapy practice, I decided to get my master’s in counseling, so I could be a therapist myself, specifically with an interest in helping parents. You see, my youngest child was 18 months old. My friends and I had spent the past several years trying to conceive, adjusting to becoming parents, and trying to figure out how to balance work, parenting, and marriage, with varying degrees of success. I knew early parenting stress firsthand.

In grad school, they never mentioned the mental health struggles that are astonishingly common in the pre- and post-partum windows. After school, I completed additional training and eventually became Perinatal Mental Health Certified. During the course of training, I learned just how prevalent these challenges are and how to assess and intervene.

Perinatal means any point during the trying to conceive or adopt, pregnancy, and the postpartum/post adoption period. As many as 1:5 mothers and 1:10 fathers experience a perinatal mood or anxiety disorder. Another 9% of women experience PTSD after childbirth. This means that at every PTO meeting, sporting event, children’s concert, or recital with at least 10 parents, one of them likely experienced a perinatal mental health challenge. In addition to being extraordinarily frequent, these disorders are highly treatable. No one should suffer alone or have to tough it out while trying to grow their family or care for a newborn.

Of course, when I came to FSG, I was eager to add perinatal care to our services, and now our clinicians offer skilled and compassionate therapy for this population. You also may know that FSG has offered parent consultations for many years, long before my arrival. These consultations are usually one session and provide tangible resources like educational materials, support groups, and treatment options. These are often focused on struggles related to children’s mental health, but let’s be real – children’s mental health is tied tightly to the wellbeing of parents. So, let me hop on my soapbox and offer myself as a consultation resource if you or someone you love is experiencing mental health symptoms while parenting or trying to become one. You are not to blame. You are not alone. And you CAN feel better.

FSG is proud to serve ALL in our community and offer focused and specialized care for a multitude of challenges, including perinatal mental health struggles. If you or someone you know is in need of support, please call us at (847) 835-5111.