Pregnancy is a time of expectation and dreaming. The anticipation of your baby’s arrival is typically filled with excitement about the moment when you will finally get to hold your little one in your arms. When your pregnancy or birth don’t go as expected, you may find yourself struggling emotionally and mentally. While the birth of a baby is a natural thing that the female body was designed to do, it is an experience that is ripe with opportunity for things to not go as planned. When things don’t go as expected, it can be traumatic.
Is it Postpartum Depression or the Baby Blues?
Postpartum Anxiety and Pandemic Worries
Giving birth is anxiety-producing and so is a pandemic, so when you put the two together, it’s a recipe for postpartum anxiety. On top of worrying about all the things that come with being a new mom or adding to your family, you now have to worry about being exposed to COVID, socially distancing, and the complexities of introducing or not introducing your infant to your loved ones.
Postpartum depression in the time of COVID-19
Being a woman is hard. Being a new mom or adding another kiddo to your family is hard. Coping with the symptoms of postpartum depression is hard. Living through a global pandemic is hard.
Giving birth during COVID-19 left many mamas feeling sad. This was not the beautiful birth they thought they would have. They did not have the same experiences they or their friends had in pre-COVID times. They did not get to share their baby with their loved one the way they had always imagined.