Let’s plan ahead – an action plan for becoming a parent when you have a pre-existing mental health condition.
The sleepless nights and hormonal dysregulation of early parenthood can be a minefield if you’re living with an existing mental health condition.
Like Renee Knight, who’d experienced depression in her teens, but didn’t anticipate the impact becoming a mother would have on her mental health.
Because there are so many questions. Which medications are safe? How will I navigate new triggers? How can I prioritise my own wellbeing along with my newborn’s? What if I relapse?
You don’t have to do it alone. It’s not fool proof – but it is possible to plan ahead to ensure your mental wellbeing is a priority during the perinatal period.
Perinatal psychologist Dr Rebecca Hill discusses what a management plan might look like for different conditions from anxiety to bipolar disorder and explains what we know about why this period can be so fraught.
This episode contains discussion of suicide.
Survive & Thrive is a podcast from Perinatal Anxiety and Depression Australia (PANDA), find it in your favourite podcast app.
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Acknowledgement
PANDA acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the land where we work and live and where this podcast is made. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging. We celebrate the stories, culture and traditions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders of all communities who also work and live on this land.
We recognise the individual and collective contributions of people with a lived and/or living experience of mental health issues, their families, loved ones and supporters.
Each person’s journey is unique and a valued contribution to Australia’s commitment to PANDA's work and mental health systems reform.
It is through listening to and acting on the voices of people with lived experience, that those who provide services, those who fund services, and most importantly, those who use services that we will find the information we need to move towards the mental health system Australia needs.
Every person’s story we hear, every experience shared, helps to develop our understanding of the system that is required to best meet the needs of Australians living with mental health issues, their families, loved ones and supporters.
Credits
Host: Gia Hogarth
PANDA Digital Editor: Serena Ashmore
PANDA Commissioning Editor: Bec Shafer
Deadset Studios Senior Producer: Grace Pashley
Deadset Studios Executive Producer: Rachel Fountain
Sound Design by Krissy Miltiadou
More information
Mental health checklist
How are you going?
Everyone’s experience of pregnancy, birth and parenting is unique and brings different rewards and challenges. Our mental health checklist can help you to see if what you’re experiencing or observing in a loved one could be reason to seek help.