How Alex and Lauren got through it – supporting your partner and yourself, when you’re not the birth parent.
Alex Fisher stood in the doorway of the hospital room holding her daughter Luca, just moments old, as her wife Lauren was rushed into emergency surgery for a massive haemorrhage. Her mind turned to the worst-case scenario. Would Lauren make it?
The first few years of parenthood had been tough for both of them, and Alex had tried to stay strong for Lauren, who had perinatal anxiety and depression after giving birth to their first daughter Ivy.
After all that Lauren had been through, Alex didn’t feel like it was her place to speak up, and she didn’t really know how or who to talk to. But as Lauren physically recovered from the traumatic birth, Alex realised that she needed to seek help to help her in her role as a parent and a wife.
When you're not the one carrying the baby, it can be easy to forget that you’re also going through all the ups and downs of new parenthood.
And when you’re supporting your partner through a perinatal mental health crisis it’s easy to let your own mental health take a back seat.
Alex and Lauren Fisher share how they navigated this time, how Alex helped Lauren and in turn got help herself.
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.