Maternal Mental Health

Find Help for Maternal Mental Health Issues. You Deserve to be Well.
Call 911 if you or someone you know is in a life-threatening emergency or is in immediate danger of harming themselves, and ask for a CIT Officer (Crisis Intervention Team). A CIT Officer is specially trained to help someone in a mental health crisis. You may also call the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988.

What is perinatal mental health?

Depression and anxiety are the most common complications of childbirth. In fact, 1 in 8 Utah women are affected by postpartum depression. One in 3 Utah women will experience either depression during pregnancy, anxiety during pregnancy, or postpartum depression. (Data source: Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS))

Perinatal mental health includes much more than just postpartum depression and can occur anytime during pregnancy through one year postpartum. In addition to depression, perinatal mental health disorders include anxiety, bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and psychosis. If you are not feeling like yourself 2 or 3 weeks after having a baby or find it difficult to care for yourself or your infant, it can be something more than the baby blues.

What are some common signs of perinatal mental health conditions?

Many moms struggle with different emotions and changes after having a baby. It’s common to struggle or not feel like yourself during pregnancy or up to a year after. You might need something simple to help you feel better, like more sleep, help from family and friends, or to focus more on your nutrition. But it may be something more. Reach out for help if you:

  • Avoid family or friends.
  • Feel angry or irritable.
  • Notice changes in your sleep and eating patterns.
  • Feel hopeless.
  • Experience scary thoughts.
  • Feel immense sadness.
  • Don’t feel connected to your baby.
  • Experience panic attacks.
  • Are no longer interested in hobbies or activities that you used to enjoy.
  • Have thoughts that make you afraid or paranoid that something bad is going to happen.
  • Have thoughts of hurting yourself or your baby.
  • Think your baby is better off without you.
  • Wish you could disappear.
  • Find yourself being hypervigilant to an obsessive degree.
  • Experience feelings of guilt and shame.
  • Have distressing memories or nightmares.
  • Experience delusions or hallucinations.
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Who can experience a perinatal mental health condition? 

Pregnancy and birth are exciting and stressful times for everyone. Anyone can experience emotional or mental health problems during and after pregnancy. 

  • Moms
  • Dads
  • Adoptive parents
  • Grandparents
  • Infant loss parents
  • Miscarriage parents
  • Gestational carriers
  • Non-gestational parents

People who have the following experiences (sometimes called risk factors) are at a higher risk of having a perinatal mental health condition:

  • A complicated pregnancy or health issues during pregnancy.
  • A premature baby.
  • Are a single parent.
  • Had postpartum depression or anxiety after a previous birth.
  • Had a mom or sister with postpartum depression or other perinatal mental health condition.
  • A complicated or traumatic birth.
  • Birth or postpartum expectations that are not met (such as not being able to breastfeed or having a C-section instead of a planned natural birth).
  • Mixed feelings about the pregnancy, whether it was planned or unplanned.
  • Experiences of racism and discrimination during the perinatal period.

What Helps?

Depression and mood disorders are treatable but will not likely go away on their own. The help you need might be as simple as focusing on sleep, nutrition, more water, or social support.

Below, you can download a free resource to help with maternal mental health that can be printed or kept on your phone. It can be found in the following languages:

You might also benefit from counseling, therapy, medication, or a combination. To find a local resource in your area, visit: maternalmentalhealth.utah.gov .

If you are not feeling like yourself, reach out for help. You deserve to be well.

Additional Resources: