Are you planning your pregnancy, pregnant or struggling to conceive?

Becoming pregnant, birth, breastfeeding and the early months and years of parenting can reveal unexpected vulnerabilities for both mothers and fathers that hamper our abilities to respond to the challenges of being a parent. It is a time of profound change, our brain changes, similar to our teens, as we prepare to meet our new child and get to know them, the structure and pattern of our lives morph to meet the needs of somebody who depends on us, our intimate relationships change, we discover things we never knew about ourselves and everybody would ideally be supported through this; emotionally and practically.

 Birth trauma can cast a shadow over early days of parenting and create anxiety as another birth becomes imminent. I have found that it is helpful to both understand the physiology of the body, understand what happened and restore a level of trust and equilibrium in your psyche and body. EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing) is an effective way of working through the trauma.

EMDR is also proving to help people cope with other pregnancy problems such as hyperemesis gravidarum and tokophobia (fear of giving birth).

Infertility can be devastating and all enveloping, sometimes therapeutic support and exploration is helpful as you process the experience.