If these thoughts seem to be permanent fixtures in your mind, you're in good company. New moms have a lot to be anxious about, and it's perfectly natural to have some fears during and after pregnancy. The problem is, anxiety can grow, disrupting your daily life and keeping you from enjoying motherhood. The Pregnancy and Postpartum Anxiety Workbook provides proven-effective strategies drawn from cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for keeping anxious thoughts at bay and getting back to the productive and positive thinking you've been missing. Through a series of easy exercises and worksheets, you'll learn skills for relaxing yourself when you feel stressed. You'll also learn to reduce the frequency and intensity of anxious feelings many pregnant women and mothers of infants face. The book also includes a chapter that offers tips to help fathers understand and support their partners. How I wish I'd had this book when I suffered from postpartum obsessive-compulsive disorder! Pregnant and postpartum moms need to know that perinatal anxiety disorders are common and treatable, and that there's no need to continue suffering. -Katherine Stone, editor of Postpartum Progress, the most widely-read blog on perinatal mood and anxiety disorders, and board member of Postpartum Support International Wiegartz and Gyoerkoe have adapted the powerful and scientifically proven techniques of cognitive behavioral therapy into tools that new moms and mothers-to-be can use to overcome the most common anxiety-related problems and reclaim this special time of life. -Jonathan S. Abramowitz, Ph.D., ABPP, professor and director of the Anxiety and Stress Disorders Clinic at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

This 2019 edition of Beyond the Blues contains the most current pregnancy and postpartum resources for prevention and treatment of mental health challenges for all parents. Updated information and research about medications, as well as complementary and alternative options are included. Direct and compassionate, it is required reading for those suffering before or after the baby is born and for all professionals working with them. “An indispensable guide to understanding and treating prenatal and postpartum depression. This book is a gift not only to healthcare providers but also to family and friends of mothers suffering from these devastating perinatal mood disorders.” —Cheryl Tatano Beck, DNSc, CNM, FAAN Professor, University of Connecticut, School of Nursing Coauthor of Postpartum Depression Screening Scale “In Beyond the Blues, Bennett and Indman offer a compact yet surprisingly comprehensive manual on prenatal and postpartum depression. Readable and practical, they systematically address screening and assessment, finding a therapist, myths about nursing and bonding, and treatment. Interesting and helpful are suggestions for family and friends. For health professionals, there is detailed diagnostic and treatment information. Beyond the Blues is a quick read with an easy-to-handle format. Recommended for consumer health and health sciences collections.” —Library Journal “This book will be of great help for both women and their health care providers, providing information on all aspects of depression in pregnancy and in the post-postpartum, including safety/risk of medication therapy.” —Adrienne Einarson RN Assistant Director, The Motherisk Program, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada “Take prenatal vitamins for the baby, but for the long-term health of the mother, this is a must read for both her and her doctor.” —Timothy A. Leach, M.D., F.A.C.O.G. OB/GYN, San Ramon Regional Medical Center, John Muir Medical Center

Mood and Anxiety Disorders During Pregnancy and Postpartum earns its important place in the literature by detailing our current understanding of the course, diagnosis, and treatment of psychiatric illness during pregnancy and postpartum, including breast-feeding -- a top priority today because we now know that active maternal psychiatric illness during pregnancy and postpartum can exert long-term negative effects on child development and cause significant morbidity for the mother. In just five concise richly informative chapters, the nine distinguished contributors to Mood and Anxiety Disorders During Pregnancy and Postpartum dispel prevailing beliefs and offer invaluable guidance in treating women during pregnancy and postpartum: Course of Psychiatric Illness During Pregnancy and the Postpartum Period -- Despite the enduring belief that pregnancy is a time of emotional well-being for women, emerging data show that pregnancy is instead a time of increased vulnerability to psychiatric illness. Diagnosis and Treatment of Mood and Anxiety Disorders During Pregnancy -- Though the use of psychotropic medications during pregnancy and postpartum raises concerns, the accumulating data support the use of certain SSRIs/tricyclic antidepressants, especially when balanced against the risk to both mother and child of depression during pregnancy. Management of Bipolar Disorder During Pregnancy and the Postpartum Period: Weighing the Risks and Benefits -- Although the onset of bipolar disorder (BP) tends to occur during women's reproductive years, surprisingly little is known about the impact of the menstrual cycle, pregnancy, postpartum, breast-feeding, and menopause on the course and treatment of bipolar disorder. Postpartum Mood Disorders -- Women experience a dramatic increase in their risk of developing severe psychiatric illness during postpartum for a full year after delivery. Often overlooked, postpartum disorders must be identified and treated as early as possible to reduce the mother's risk for recurrent and treatment-refractory illness and the child's risk for long-term development problems due to the detrimental effect of maternal depression. Use of Antidepressants and Mood Stabilizers in Breast-feeding Women -- This expanded clinical appraisal of the literature on antidepressant and mood stabilizer use in breast-feeding women shows that additional detailed pharmacokinetic investigations are urgently needed to enhance our understanding of nursing infant exposure and the role(s) of pharmacogenomics in determining infant exposure. Meticulously referenced and remarkably succinct, Mood and Anxiety Disorders During Pregnancy and Postpartum provides critical information about the course of illness during pregnancy and postpartum to help guide effective individualized treatment decisions-decisions that are ultimately based on the patient's wishes.

This book helps you throughout your pregnancy and postpartum/postnatal recovery. By helping you understand what you are feeling, and teaching you empirically validated new skills so you can manage your changing moods, you can work toward feeling better. Becoming a new parent is one of the biggest changes one can face in life. You are experiencing enormous changes biologically, hormonally, and emotionally. Your whole life may seem uprooted. It makes sense that you might be feeling significant mood changes as well. With one out of five mothers and one out of ten partners experiencing depression and anxiety when having a baby, this workbook will remind you that you are not alone. This workbook is written with sleep-deprived new parents in mind, providing helpful information in short, digestible segments. These are intermixed with thought-provoking activities such as brief journaling prompts and suggestions for tangible steps to make small, realistic changes. You can pick it up and put it down, reading it on your timing, without the information becoming overwhelming. The workbook covers the entire range of mood symptoms, from the Baby Blues, to anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, PTSD, OCD, and more. The Pregnancy and Postpartum Mood Workbook uses inclusive language and content applicable to all new parents. There are chapters uniquely dedicated to building attachment, managing awful thoughts, bringing awareness to your partner's mental health, parenting babies in the NICU or with medical issues, and exploring culture, identity, and mental health. There is also a resource section with a wide array of support available to meet the needs of any parent. Adoptive and single parents, LGBTQ+ and heterosexual parents, as well as clinicians and birth workers will find this book to be an invaluable resource.

This book is a hands-on guide for facilitating treatment of anxiety and depression during pregnancy and the postpartum period. Readers will learn about why anxiety and related difficulties can increase during pregnancy and the postpartum period, the critical roles that thoughts and behaviors play in maintaining symptoms, and how to apply practical cognitive and behavioral strategies to reduce distress and increase coping skills. Chapters are integrated with the latest research, and clinicians and individuals alike are presented with customizable cognitive behavioral therapy-based handouts, exercises, and worksheets proven to meet the unique needs of the perinatal population.

Unlike other mindfulness resources for moms and moms-to-be, this compassionate book is grounded in mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, a proven program. The authors are leading experts on the emotional challenges of pregnancy and early parenting--and how to overcome them. Guided meditations and gentle yoga practices help you build crucial skills to prevent depression, ease anxiety, and minimize stress during this unique and important phase of your life. Clear suggestions for how to follow the program day by day are accompanied by moving reflections from a "circle of mothers" working through the same steps. In a convenient large-size format, the book features journaling exercises and other practical tools (you can download and print additional copies as needed). The companion website also includes audio downloads narrated by renowned meditation teacher Sharon Salzberg, plus video clips of prenatal yoga practices.

Designed for clinicians delivering postpartum care, including clinicians, midwives, OB-GYN nurse practitioners, and women's health practitioners, this text overviews the six different mood and anxiety disorders that may present during a woman's postpartum year. Postpartum Mood and Anxiety Disorders focuses on assessment, screening tools, diagnosis, treatment, and implications for practice, and includes case studies to integrate the process.