#youarenotabadmother if you did not enjoy your pregnancy or your birth. You have your whole life ahead of you to enjoy your child. The changes that occur in the body and brain during pregnancy, as well as health concerns or social stress, may cause many women distress – more so if circumstances are adverse or…
#youarenotabadmother if you need help after you give birth. Motherhood requires social support. The postpartum period in the human species is designed to happen within a maternal social network. Support from other mothers helps make the experience a better one and prevents psychological distress. Let´s create those networks – let´s care for mothers. If…
The first World Maternal Mental Health Day was celebrated in 2016, and is commemorated every year in the first Wednesday of May – this year, May 6th 2020. World Maternal Mental Health Day was launched to raise awareness about mental health problems in the perinatal period, so as to encourage women to seek…
In this reduced lockdown space, where exalted emotions cry like wounds – both from adults and from children – few things grant us fresh air. Breastfeeding is more than ever a restful place, a shared caress, an interior paradise, a fountain of hope for life, that life which we will dive back into some day.…
by Ibone Olza, perinatal psychiatrist Cooperate or compete. Trust or fear. Share or fight. Accompany or isolate. In the end, there are only two states: love or fear, and one is the absence of the other. The more love, less fear. The more fear, less love (in the words of Abuela Margarita). Hard choices,…
by Carmela K Baeza, MD, IBCLC As I was looking at images of mothers with facemasks and their newborns, I kept wondering what kind of a shock this would be for the baby. Babies are wired to look at their parents´ faces and learn to read and to express emotions from birth. A perinatal…
By Ana G Uriarte MD, child & adolescent psychiatrist and systemic therapist. Love is the foundation of health – this is what I felt compelled to remember today. I am not giving recommendations of “what to do” with babies, toddlers and children during these times. There are many, and many of the good, ideas…
by Ibnoe Olza, perinatal psychiatrist Dear midwife, How are you? I have spoken with several of your colleagues, others have written to me. They have told me of your feelings of frustration and impotence, of your exhaustion, of your giving of self. Of the difficult job you are facing in your birthing rooms since the…
Richard Fletcher, SMS4dads program for new dads. Dear new or soon-to-be fathers Providing the care and support to a pregnant mother and then discovering your fathering role within your new family is an exciting and important task, which has few guidelines. We hope you’re going okay and managing the highs and lows. We also want…
As the world prioritizes physical distance to detain or slow down the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19), a new study from Florida Atlantic University shows that physical contact between mother and infant is essential for optimal neurological development, maturation and regulation during infancy. Mother-infant dyads show high oxytocin levels and are less impacted by stress, which…
