Perinatal and Early Parenting Period

Pregnancy and parenting are often portrayed as joyful, fulfilling experiences and while they can be, they can also bring emotional upheaval, uncertainty, and unexpected challenges. It’s common for people to feel overwhelmed, isolated, or disconnected during this time.

The perinatal period includes pregnancy, birth, and the first year after a baby is born but the emotional impact often extends well beyond that. Whether you’re adjusting to new roles, coping with physical or emotional changes, managing disrupted sleep and routines, or facing relationship strain, support is available.

Common Perinatal and Parenting Challenges

• Anxiety, worry, or intrusive thoughts during or after pregnancy
• Low mood, tearfulness, or a sense of numbness
• Feeling irritable, angry, or sensitive
• Difficulty bonding with your baby or feeling like you’re “not doing it right”
• Changes in identity, self-esteem, or sense of purpose
• Relationship stress or feeling disconnected from your partner
• Birth trauma, grief after loss, or difficult fertility experiences
• Overwhelm, burnout, or perfectionism relating to parenthood
• Guilt, shame, or fear of being judged
• Changes in sleep (e.g., staying awake when you should be sleeping or wanting to sleep all the time)
• General difficulties with coping and adjusting

These challenges can affect mothers, fathers, non-birthing partners, and anyone in a caregiving role. You’re not alone and you don’t have to wait until things feel “bad enough” to seek help.

Why This Period Can Be So Emotionally Challenging

Becoming a parent is a profound psychological shift. It can activate early attachment patterns, stir up unresolved grief or trauma, and place new pressures on relationships, finances, identity, and wellbeing.

Hormonal changes, disrupted sleep, and the constant demands of caregiving can wear down even the most resilient person. Social isolation, unrealistic societal expectations, or feeling unseen in your role can also contribute to emotional distress. And for many, the experience of birth — whether empowering or traumatic leaves a lasting imprint that may require some extra support to process.

If you’ve experienced fertility difficulties, miscarriage, stillbirth, or birth trauma, this period may bring additional layers of grief, fear, or uncertainty.

Therapy offers a space to process these experiences with empathy and without judgment — helping you reconnect with yourself, your values, and your capacity to parent in a way that feels grounded and supported.

How Psychologists Can Help

At Inner View Psychology, we support individuals across the full spectrum of perinatal and parenting experiences — from planning for parenthood to adjusting to life with a new baby or navigating the emotional demands of raising young children.

We offer a safe and confidential space to:

• Process birth trauma, grief, or loss
• Manage anxiety, depression, or emotional overwhelm
• Explore identity changes and role transitions
• Strengthen your relationship with yourself, your baby, and others
• Develop practical strategies for coping

Our work draws on evidence-based approaches, tailored to your individual needs.

Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT)

CBT can help you recognise unhelpful thought patterns that contribute to guilt, worry, or low self-worth, such as “I’m failing as a parent” or “I should be coping better.” Therapy may include identifying these patterns, building self-compassion, and developing strategies to manage mood, anxiety, and sleep more effectively.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

ACT focuses on helping you respond to difficult thoughts and feelings with openness and flexibility. You might explore how to sit with discomfort (like fear, sadness, or anger) while still taking action that aligns with your values as a parent or partner. ACT also emphasises mindfulness and connection to the present moment, which can be powerful tools during times of overwhelm.

Schema Therapy

Schema Therapy can be especially helpful for parents who find their own childhood experiences influencing how they parent for example, fears of repeating past patterns, difficulty regulating emotions, or struggling to feel “good enough.” Therapy gently explores these deeper beliefs, offering space for healing and the development of a more supportive and nurturing inner voice

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