Healing the Tigress Ep. 4 - Finding the Good Enough Mother during Postpartum Anxiety with Peggy, LCSW, PMH-C
What happens when you’re a mental health professional who knows more than enough about postpartum depression and you embark on your own postpartum journey—only to discover that there’s a whole world of postpartum anxiety you’ve never seen?
In today’s episode, our Healing the Tigress cohost, Peggy, shares her story about how she was blindsided by postpartum anxiety amidst a pandemic. She dives into how she felt the social pressures to sleep train in order to be a “perfect” mother and the journey through learning the value of being a Good Enough Mother.
Peggy also explains how becoming a mother enlightened her understanding of being a Highly Sensitive Person (HSP) and how rediscovering her own intuition led her to see there are other ways to respond to your baby that may not be what the dominant Western culture imposes. She was reminded that there are centuries of traditions and cultures around the world that embrace a different way of responsive parenting that may not be the norm in Western society.
As she gave herself permission to parent her new baby from her own intuition and cultural lens, she finally found relief from her postpartum anxiety. She also discovered a therapist who was a better cultural fit to honor how she wanted to parent.
If you have ever had doubts about sleep training or are unsure about how postpartum anxiety might look, this will be a great episode for you to tune into!
The Highly Sensitive Person by Elaine N Aron, PhD
Social media recommendationsInstagram - @HeySleepyBaby
La Leche League International resource:The Safe Sleep Seven
Note: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speakers' own. This podcast is not a replacement for therapy or professional/medical advice. If you are in need of more support or advice, please reach out to your own medical professional who can answer your questions with your individual medical history and background in context.