Prenatal + Postpartum Anxiety
Understanding + Healing Prenatal and Postpartum Anxiety
Prenatal and postpartum anxiety is incredibly common — and incredibly undertalked about. About 1 in 5 people experience significant anxiety during pregnancy or after birth, yet many struggle silently because they feel they should be happy, calm, or grateful. If you're overwhelmed, on edge, or caught in a loop of worry you can't quiet, you are not alone. And your feelings are valid.
Prenatal Anxiety
Pregnancy can bring joy and excitement — but it can also bring fear, uncertainty, and a kind of emotional vulnerability that can be hard to prepare for. This is especially true for people who have experienced previous miscarriages, pregnancy loss, or fertility trauma. When your history includes heartbreak, it makes complete sense that fear would show up alongside hope. You might find yourself scanning for symptoms, bracing for something to go wrong, or feeling emotionally distant as a way of protecting yourself.
Hormonal changes, physical symptoms, medical appointments, and the pressure of preparing for birth can all intensify anxiety — making it hard to sleep, relax, or quiet your thoughts. Your nervous system may feel like it's constantly on high alert, scanning your body and environment for signs of danger. Any small shift in symptoms can spiral into worst-case-scenario thinking. It's exhausting, and it can feel endless — but it is treatable. You can find safety in your pregnancy experience.
Postpartum Anxiety
After birth, anxiety may continue or appear unexpectedly — sometimes even when pregnancy itself felt manageable. Postpartum anxiety can feel like racing thoughts, constant worry about your baby's safety, irritability, panic, or a relentless sense of being "on alert" that makes rest feel impossible even when you're exhausted.
For many parents, anxiety can feel more destabilizing than depression — even though both are equally real and equally deserving of care. Anxiety and depression also frequently overlap in the postpartum period. You might feel anxious one moment and deeply sad or detached the next. In our work together, we'll figure out what's happening in your body and mind and find gentle, evidence-based ways to get your symptoms under control.
Postpartum Rage
Postpartum rage is a lesser-known but very real experience — sudden anger, intense frustration, or irritability that feels out of character and sometimes frightening. It can be tied to sleep deprivation, hormonal shifts, unmet emotional needs, and underlying anxiety or depression. It does not mean you are a bad parent.
If postpartum rage is part of what you're experiencing, it's something we can work on together — understanding where it comes from and building tools to manage it safely and compassionately.
Intrusive Thoughts
Postpartum anxiety and postpartum OCD can both bring intrusive thoughts — unwanted, frightening thoughts about your baby's safety that feel deeply out of character. These are more common than most people know, and they often carry a lot of shame.
Having intrusive thoughts does not mean you want to act on them, and it does not mean you are a danger to your child. It means you deserve support — and this is something we can talk about together, openly and without judgment.
How We Work Together
Therapy offers a grounded, nonjudgemental space to slow down, get to know your anxiety, and figure out what actually helps.
Together, we'll:
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Process past miscarriage, pregnancy loss, or fertility trauma that may be shaping your experience now
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Understand how hormonal changes are affecting your mood and nervous system
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Reduce anxious thoughts, panic, and intrusive worries using cognitive behavioral therapy
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Build nervous system regulation skills to help your body and mind find calm
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Explore the identity shifts and pressures that come with new parenthood
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Address postpartum rage and develop tools for managing big emotions with compassion
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Strengthen communication with your partner or support system
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Create an individualized plan to support you through pregnancy, postpartum, and beyond
Our goal is to help you feel genuinely safer — and to help you connect with your baby and yourself with more ease and less fear.
You don't have to navigate this alone
Prenatal and postpartum anxiety are treatable, and support is available. Reach out to schedule a free consultation and take the first step toward feeling like yourself again.