What I Wish I Knew About PMADs Before Giving Birth
You can know the symptoms. You can prep the nursery. You can be a therapist—and still be completely caught off guard.
I wish I had known how messy it would feel. That PMADs (perinatal mood and anxiety disorders) don’t always start postpartum. That they don’t always look like sadness. That they can make you question everything—even when you love your baby.
This is the blog I needed back then.
PMADs Aren’t Just One Thing
We often hear about postpartum depression, but PMADs include a range of struggles:
Postpartum anxiety
Postpartum OCD (often with scary or intrusive thoughts)
Postpartum PTSD (often following birth trauma)
Postpartum psychosis (rare but serious)
Postpartum rage (common, and rarely discussed)
Want to go deeper into what PMADs can look like? Start here.
It Started Before My Baby Was Even Born
I thought I was just an anxious pregnant person. I didn’t realize how much of that fear and heaviness would follow me into postpartum. The dread at night. The exhaustion that made me cry in the shower. The moments I didn’t feel like myself, even when everything looked “fine” on the outside.
If guilt has been whispering in your ear, this blog might help quiet it.
When It Doesn’t Look Like Sadness
Sometimes it shows up as constant fear. Sometimes it's rage at your partner, your body, your life. Sometimes it’s numbness—just going through the motions.
And if you come from a culture where strength is survival, where mental health isn’t talked about? It can be even harder to ask for help.
Finding My Way Back
Getting support didn’t erase what I went through—but it helped me make sense of it. It gave me language. It gave me space. It gave me permission to feel all of it without judgment.
You don’t need to wait until you’re falling apart. You don’t need a diagnosis to deserve care.
We offer therapy that’s culturally responsive, trauma-informed, and grounded in real-life parenting—not perfection.
