Antenatal / postnatal depression? Hypnotherapy could provide the solution.
I was prompted to revisit this page after re-reading Joan Raphael-Leff’s book on “Pregnancy, The Inside Story” again. It was a key text in my training as a child and adolescent psychotherapist and reminded me of my previous training in ante and post-natal depression. Pregnancy, this book reminded me, is a psychological minefield and is no bed of roses for a great many women.
If you’re reading this looking for hypnotherapy for your antenatal or postnatal depression then I’m truly sorry to hear it. I understand how terrible depression can be at the best of times. It’s even worse when you believe that there’s absolutely no reason to feel this way, when people expect you to be ‘blooming’ in pregnancy or loving every second of life with your little ‘bundle of joy’.
Those women who do feel as if pregnancy and the early months of motherhood are an ordeal are pressured into putting on a front. It’s a conspiracy of silence whereby women will feel as if they’re the only ones to feel this way, that they’re somehow monstrous for not l0ving every second. Outside of books, very few women are prepared to speak about these feelings. It’s all so very easy to feel all so very alone.
It’s OK. I’ve used hypnotherapy in Oxford, Reading, London (Holborn), Wallingford and Thame to help mothers to overcome this feeling of utter depression and to get back to enjoying their time as pregnant mothers to be or as the parents to beautiful babies.
I also offer hypnotherapy for antenatal and post-natal depression online, using vsee, whatsapp, zoom. Please get in touch for details.
It’s perfectly OK and it’s perfectly normal to feel this way
It’s estimated that 10 to 15% of women experience postnatal depression and the rates of antenatal depression are said to be higher still (Kumar & Robson 1984).
That, of course, is the figure based on diagnosed women and does not include what must be a good number of women who just muddle through whilst hiding their troubles as best they can. It also excludes the modern cohort of women who have been additionally traumatised by recent lockdowns and costs of living crises.
The process of being pregnant and adjusting to a new child are significant lifestyle changes. They’re an enormous challenge for every mother and those who experienced depression of anxiety and depression before even thinking of children tend to have a harder time still.
Your body is changing, your career may be coming to an abrupt halt. Self-image changes as your body becomes host to a very demanding foetus and child. Even the simple things like climbing the stairs become a test of endurance. The life you’ve built and the life you’ve enjoyed may now be seen as being wrecked, thanks to the intrusion of a new being who is demanding (or who soon will) all of your time, attention and energy.
Furthermore, people who had difficult childhoods can sometimes experience a revival of all that period’s difficult feelings and emotions when pregnant or a new mother. Being responsible for the health and happiness of your own child can bring up any number of resentments as you begin to recall, once again, how you were treated as a child. Perhaps there’s also the fear that you may end up behaving to your own child as your parent treated you. This is all well researched and documented. You are far from being alone.
Relationships change. Will your husband or partner see you in the same way?
Will you be able to love your first child in the same way? Will you love your second child as much as the first? Can you really afford it? Everything is so expensive and you’d just love that fully kitted-out nursery you saw in the catalogue but it all seems so impossible.
You’re no longer just a woman. You’re a mother or mother-to-be and everybody has expectations and advice to give. Soooo much advice. Everybody is supermum, except you. You feel rubbish and you feel worse because you feel rubbish. Why can’t you just be happy? This should be the best time of your life. You’ve been looking forward to it for so long, after all….
Haven’t you?
Well, that’s unless you suffer from tokophobia and the very experience of being pregnant and the very thought of childbirth is a terror. That terror can build and build until your body has simply had enough and goes into a depressive shutdown.
Read more about tokophobia and its treatment here
I haven’t even mentioned the dreaded word ‘hormones’. They’re up the creek and everything can seem out of control. You’re no longer in charge of life and the future seems so very uncertain.
Is it any surprise that so many women become depressed when their ability to control so many variables, so many enormous changes, seems so poor? There are a good number of women who resent their bodies being taken over by the child growing within them. They will often feel as if they are horrible people for feeling this way and fear that they will never come to love their child.
If any of this sounds familiar then keep reading. The future isn’t as grim as you might imagine. I’ve worked with all of these fears and with all of these emotions. Women have come to me for help and hypnotherapy in Reading, Oxford, Thame, Wallingford and elsewhere. They learned to be OK with their feelings and fears and to put them into a better perspective. You could too.
Pre or post natal depression doesn’t have to be simply put up with. Hypnotherapy could help you.
It is fine to feel depressed. It’s normal to be scared. Telling yourself that you’re a bad person for feeling this way will only make things worse. You won’t bully yourself out of these feelings. You’ve tried that already. Let’s try something else instead. If you’d like to see me for pre or postnatal depression hypnotherapy in Reading or Oxford, Wallingford or Thame then just get in touch and we’ll discuss how I might be able to help you.
What could you do right now?
Well, besides getting in touch with me it would also be a good idea to go and see your GP. You won’t be the first person to report with such problems and you won’t be the last.
Other ways in which you can make some headway against depression is to do some reading. Learning that you’re not alone may help you to feel better, as will taking as much exercise as is realistic along with improving your diet.
Please do look after yourself. You do deserve it and will come to realise this soon enough.
Others have learned to let go of such awful depressive feelings. I’ve used hypnotherapy to help women with pre and post natal depression in Oxford, London (Holborn), Reading, Wallingford and Thame and could help you too. Give me a call and we’ll get started on freeing you from this awful prison.
There are millions of women who have been through this before you.
There will be millions of women to come who will experience the same guilt, sadness, anger and anxiety.
You are far from alone and Resolved! Hypnotherapy is here to help you.
Hypnotherapy could help you to overcome antenatal and postnatal depression
I’ve used hypnotherapy in Reading, Oxford, Wallingford and Thame to help women suffering from antenatal and postpartum depression. If you’d like some help too then please do get in touch with me. Call me on 07786123736 or email me using paul@resolvedhypnotherapy.co.uk. I’ll be glad to talk with you.
Depression can seem so overwhelming, so cloying and so thick that it can feel impossible to see an end to it. Hypnotherapy could help you, first of all, to accept yourself and your depression. You’ve done nothing wrong and those feelings need to be accepted before they can be left behind.
Hypnotherapy could help you to recapture those times when you weren’t depressed. Hypnotherapy could teach you to control and manipulate your emotions, learning how to let go of depression and anxiety.
Hypnotherapy when combined with mindfulness and psychotherapy could help you to understand how and why these feelings arose within you to begin with. You could then learn to be more tolerant of the depression and of your own self. Sometimes being free of these feelings means learning to accept them and to approach them in a very different way. You can’t beat yourself up and expect to feel better.
Let’s work together in order to help you to let this problem go. You can resolve whatever emotional issues have brought it into being and you can look forward to enjoying pregnancy and / or motherhood.
You can do it and step by step I’ll show you how.
Hypnotherapy could help you. Contact me to find out more.
Hypnotherapy could help you to recapture your life, moving back into the activities and pleasures you used to enjoy – step by step – until you begin to regain confidence and a sense of agency and optimism. You’ve handled difficult times before and you can learn to cope with this one. You really can. I’ll show you how.
Hypnotherapy could also help you to overcome and deal with any long-term issues which may have contributed to your present situation. Some women with difficult pasts worry about inflicting the same problems – or different ones – upon their children. Some women with difficult pasts see these feelings re-emerge as they imagine themselves preparing to look after another vulnerable person.
Whatever they may be, hypnotherapy could help you to put the long-term issues behind you. It could help you to feel OK with the present and it could help you to resolve your fears of the future. You’ve managed big life-changes before. You’ll manage this one too. Ill help you to see your strengths, your positive qualities and how to put them to good use.
You could call me on 07786 123736 /01183 280284 / 01865 600970, email me at paul@resolvedhypnotherapy.co.uk or simply use the contact form below. However you choose to get in touch, I look forward to talking with you.
Best wishes
