¶ Introduction and Episode Replay Announcement
Hey guys , this is Sarah with the Preview Alliance podcast . This month , we are replaying our most downloaded episodes . These episodes are the ones that has resonated the most with you guys . So if you're a longtime listener , this is a great refresher . And share this with a friend who may be new .
If you're new , welcome , and we hope that these episodes are impactful to you like it has been for others . Thank you for being with us and stay tuned . Hey guys , welcome back to Preview Alliance Podcast . It's Sarah and Whitney . Okay , so we're in our pregnancy education series . That's right . We just covered , covered depression .
Now let's talk about anxiety during pregnancy . So there is actually a term antenatal anxiety . Um , it is common people don't talk about it , um , because you hear a lot of depression yeah , but anxiety has a big play .
It really does one in five , I would honestly say it's probably a little bit more . Yeah , because we not everyone will report exactly . But then to like clients that I work with , to my knowledge they've never been any part of like a research project or any type of stat gathering so that's so .
We don't really know if that data is as accurate as it could be .
I would almost dare say maybe three out of five oh yeah , and then people are not like we know this because we're in previa and we , and like you said that we have higher numbers than one in five they're expressing this . No one's checking in with them during their pregnancy . That's a problem about mental health .
So if this we're going to talk about what it is the risk factors , the difference between , like , worry and anxiety I think that's a thing , oh , for sure
¶ Worry vs. Anxiety: Key Differences
. And what you can do . Yes , so what it is Anxiety , is feeling kind of like you're obsessing , you're hyperventilating , panic attacks palpitations , shortness of breath hot flashes . It can be physical and mental presentations and so it's like what's the difference between anxiety and worry ?
so worry is going to be one of those more situational . Okay , it's not going to be something that consumes you for 20 out of 24 hours a day so worry is something like and worry probably has a light at the end of the tunnel so it's like okay , my kid is spiked a fever .
I'm worried that he . It's cold flu season exactly I'm worried we're going down this way , yeah .
Anxiety would be oh my gosh , my child has to have , you know , flu , rsv , covid , pneumonia , something really bad , and they're going to end up at children's , they're going to end up on a ventilator , they're going to be in ICU . You can't shake it . And it's going to be again the spiraling , intrusive thoughts .
It's going to be worst case scenario , whereas you know , as moms , we're gonna worry about our kids , naturally , right . But we could say , okay , I'm really worried because you woke up from your nap with a 104 fever . We should be worried about that .
Yep , and so you know , you call the pediatrician , you're worried , okay , well , if they end up positive for , you know , flu , rsv , covid , they're going to be out of school for a week at a minimum .
How am I going to juggle , calling out of work for a week and keeping them well and keeping my smaller child well , and you're going to be thinking through those things , which is a logical process . Right , it will not feel good because it is very worrisome , it is heavy , it is a lot to have to logistically deal with but anxiety will take over your life .
It will and it will make you feel that inevitably it again worst case scenario . Now , I'm not saying it's a best case scenario that you have to call out of work for a week but we're also not in the ICU with our child on the ventilator two minutes after our kid popped a fever , yeah , you know that's where it becomes .
Anxiety is going to be that worst case scenario , thinking we're going to have those intrusive thoughts , and it impedes our day to day Absolutely . And you know , with anxiety you almost feel like there's an impending doom .
You can't get away from yeah .
Almost like you've got a little black rain cloud just right there with you where worry is . Okay , they popped a fever . I'm going to go ahead and give them motrin and tylenol , you know what , as I can . I'm gonna call the pediatrician see if I can get them in there . If not , we're gonna go to pediatric urgent care . We're gonna get a swab .
You may find yourself almost going into type a task organizer mode of okay , well , we need to do that . I need to go ahead and tell my work . Hey , my kid popped a fever today . I know they can't go to school tomorrow and tomorrow is Monday . I'm going to take them to urgent care and I'll keep you posted on if I have to take other days off of work .
Okay , task manager , right there , boom , boom , boom . Going to get our plan together , because plans do help ease anxiety and worry . We know that . Yes , but if it's anxiety , again thinking , well , what if we go to urgent care and they do have flu ? And again , what if we do end up at children's and blah , blah , blah . What if they have a febrile seizure ?
I'm going to lose my mind if they have a febrile seizure . What if we're in a car accident on the way to the urgent care . Yeah , I mean we are kind of spiraling , but we're going in different directions . While we spiral , oh yeah , it's a lot . So anxiety is going to be one of those . There's no real control with it .
You can't rationalize yourself out back to just the day-to-day .
It's like you're tumbling down a mountain , not a hill a mountain and you can't . We're literally an avalanche starting exactly , and then worry is going to be like okay , I don't like this , but again task manager of , we need to do da , da , da da I need to try and figure out how to do it .
Yes , okay because , again , that gives us a sense of control and it gives us a plan . When we have a plan , our worry does tend to decrease .
We're still concerned because anxiety comes out of a protection mechanism .
To a point it really does , and then it spirals you know , beyond and worry again is that protective measure ? But it's also okay . I need to take action , so action .
Protective action , action versus being captured in this Think of it like the flight fight or fawn , yes , so worry can take you to the fight mode , which is task management , getting a game plan right . Anxiety is gonna put you in flight or fawn , so you're just like your brain is going , but you're kind of frozen in the moment .
Oh , I love that , I totally resonate that
¶ Anxiety During Pregnancy: Warning Signs
. So people might be like , okay , cool , what does that look like during pregnancy ? Well , maybe you are losing sleep over thoughts , scary thoughts .
You could be , and I'm not saying that this is not a founded concern , because if you've experienced child loss before , it is a valid concern . But you could always be worried about is my baby okay , especially if you cannot feel that baby kick , so you can be ?
Obsessive over counting the kicks , the movement feeling like you need to have an at-home doppler to keep track of the heart right , listening to the heartbeat ? Yeah , not just like a weekly check-in , right or ?
calling your doctor frequently for reassurance , yeah , and then , once given reassurance , that's still not enough yeah , it's temporary reassurance Right . Or just like we said , you're noticing your heartbeat , you're difficult breathing , you're experiencing panic attacks , or maybe you're obsessing over things now . Like , everything has to be clean .
I have to wipe things constantly , or maybe we have to do things multiple times to avoid something bad happening .
So this could be presenting during pregnancy and again , like we talked about depression people . It's hard to kind of know it and see it , because pregnancy can make you have these symptoms in a way . Yeah Right , because people can rationalize it . I'm pregnant for the first time . I hear scary things , I'm afraid of my child .
Yes , I'm more anxious . Right , there's some justification , absolutely , but again , it's when it spirals , when we feel like we're frozen from that fear .
And we're not doing anything like tasked to fix it Correct .
We're dwelling in that Now in pregnancy that is a little bit harder . So hard Because there's not a ton that we can do during pregnancy . That is task oriented . Right Now , let's throw a hypothetical out there .
Let's just say a pregnant mama is driving to work and she gets rear-ended Not a bad accident , Let me not life-threatening but she gets rear-ended , so she's naturally concerned . Oh yeah , so what she should do is call her OB , say , hey , I was in a fender bender this morning . I overall feel okay , but I really just need the baby to get checked on .
Absolutely that is task management . That gives you an action plan . Your OB needs to know about that anyway , and they would want you to come in and get checked . So keep those things in mind too , too of what is in your control , what is not within your control .
Now , if you wake up at two o'clock in the morning no bleeding , no physical trauma , nothing to make you panic and all of a sudden you think I have to go be seen , because what if ? Well , it's one of those . Okay , are you far enough along to feel the baby kick ? And you're thinking well , I haven't felt the baby kick At that point .
Always talk to your doctor about this . But I would say eat something with a little bit of sugar , or have a little bit of caffeine . See within 30 minutes if you can get baby to kicking . If not , then absolutely , I would go ahead and go on to the hospital kind of thing .
But if it's one of those those you wake up and you think , oh , inevitably my baby is gone and we don't have a reason to believe that . That's when I would use our grounding thoughts and say , okay , right now I don't have a reason , a tangible reason to say this is why I could have lost my baby Right Now .
If I'm still feeling this freaked out about it in the morning , I will call my OB and see if they can just check for a heartbeat , Right ? Those kinds of things .
When it's hard to , when you're pregnant , because it's like you're growing this baby but you have such little control
¶ Risk Factors and Treatment Options
.
That is the hard part , and it's like in your body , but you have such little control .
Yeah , now , risk factors for anxiety and pregnancy is very similar to when we talked about depression .
So is very similar to when we talked about depression . So realize there's going to be a little bit of a repeat or an overlap with some of these .
So I mean the same thing . History of mental health anxiety .
Yeah , for yourself or family .
Trauma , substance , abuse , drugs , xx stress .
If you're already a type A or Enneagram one person . I always say type A equals type anxiety . Yes , If you've had a history of any type of pregnancy and or child loss , that will . This pregnancy is super high risk .
Exactly Again , if you have a diagnosis of hyperemesis gravida , if you've got a diagnosis of gestational diabetes , if you've had a prior diagnosis of preeclampsia , you're going to be on edge .
So keep that in mind you're gonna be on edge , so keep that in mind now .
The big thing , too , is anxiety during pregnancy we know is treatable by therapy , the same way we talked about with postpartum depression or and pregnancy depression is the earlier we can recognize , hey , something's feeling off then we can intervene and we can get that help absolutely because you don't want to be stuck in that paralyzing worry anxiety , miserable .
Well then you're not going to be able to function you're not , if you're recognizing it will limit your life that's something you need to help , and I remember um having such anxiety during pregnancy granted , because it was a high-risk pregnancy and stuff .
I just felt , like you said , trapped , paralyzed , paralyzed , and I did not know at the time to reach out to therapy , but that would have been so beneficial to me absolutely just someone to process this with .
So that's why we would encourage you if you don't have a therapist on board , um , you know , if you're in alabama , kind of out to Preview Alliance , see what you can do there . Reach out to your insurance company , see who they cover you to go see in network providers .
Exactly , um , if you feel like you're not super comfortable doing therapy because it does , you know you do have to be vulnerable to do therapy , right ? Voice journal get those things out . Schedule that worry time .
Oh yeah .
So aot yourself 10 or 15 minutes , as needed to pen
¶ Coping Strategies and Support
and paper , journal , voice journal , just process it , however . You need to process it , but set that alarm on your phone for no more than 15 minutes , because then we start to dwell and spiral and all the things . Let it out , but give yourself an opportunity to feel your feels . Yes , give yourself that opportunity , if you can . I know we're in Alabama .
You know we were 70 degrees earlier this week , now we're 45 . We don't really know what we're doing here with weather .
We don't know where we're at .
We had tornadoes earlier this week and now we had frosted windshields today , so we don't really know what we're doing , but if the weather is good , go for a walk . Go for a walk .
Do some you . You know grounding outside . Yes , go barefoot out on the grass for a little bit . Yes , you know deep breaths , learning how to take that deep breath in , get at the top and let it out . That's right .
Calm your body , sleep , prioritize your sleep as best you can and I know you're in pregnancy and that that may look like naps that may look like less time than you normally yeah , and something we're seeing a lot in previa too is we're getting a lot of spikes of anxiety in the first trimester .
Oh , absolutely .
And Harvard actually says that's a thing because our hormone influx and that's when they would expect to see the greatest amount of anxiety . So if you're in that first trimester and you're like whoa , what the heck .
I've never experienced this before .
Uh-huh , check in in that first trimester and you're like whoa , what the heck ? I've never experienced this before . Uh-huh , check in on it . Yeah , call it what it is . If you want to reach out for support , then go for it if you want to say , let me ground myself , let me do my work let me work on my walks .
Let me just say this to someone and let's check in .
Yeah , in a couple weeks , let's use our toolbox tools , yes , which , let's use those , so many of those . And then , if I feel this way in two weeks , then I'll reach out , and that's fine too , because the important thing is that person said hey , something's up , something's up , so we want you to capture that .
You know it's like you , a wildfire , right ? You want to smell that smoke and find it when it's little , exactly . You don't want it taking over the whole forest , no , and so mental health is the same way .
So that's why we start in pregnancy , we give you this education , and so , again , let's say it again , like we said in depression If this is resonating with you . You're not a bad mom . This is not your fault .
And there is help Yep , absolutely . And there is help Yep , absolutely . That's what we're here for , all right guys , till next time .
That's right . Maternal mental health is as important as physical
¶ Episode Closing and Podcast Information
health . The Preview Alliance podcast was created for and by moms dealing with postpartum depression and all its variables , like anxiety , anger and even apathy . Hosted by CEO founder Sarah Parkhurst and licensed clinical social worker Whitney Gay , each episode focuses on specific issues relevant to pregnancy and postpartum .
Join us and hear how other moms have overcome mental health challenges , as well as access tips and suggestions on dealing with your own challenges as moms . You can also browse our podcast library and listen to previous episodes at any time . Please know you're not alone on this journey . We're here to help .