Postnatal depression, childbirth and parenting years issues

Picture of Jill Wootten

Working with Pregnancy, Childbirth, Postnatal Depression and the Parenting Years.

Offering supportive work with couples, reflecting and debriefing labour, help with pregnancy and parenting decisions, support with bereavement and loss.

As an antenatal teacher for The National Childbirth Trust, I taught couples for more than 10 years. This has made me very aware of the real mix of excitement, uncertainty, anxiety and worry that parents often feel during pregnancy, childbirth and throughout the parenting years. Combining this awareness, with my role as a Psychotherapist gives me the ability to work effectively with a whole range of parenting issues including miscarriage, still birth, traumatic birth, relationship breakdown, fatherhood, infertility and parenting a disabled child. I have extensive experience working with postnatal depression and its impact on both partners. I have also been a birth partner on several occasions which has enabled me to gain an insight into this role.

Becoming a parent often stirs up your own experience of being a child. Some of these experiences are positive and some are not. For example, if you had a difficult relationship with your parents you may now be struggling to establish a relationship with your child. Past experiences can impact on your present day feelings and your expectations of yourself as a parent. The counselling I offer will help you to process your history alongside your current issues. I will help you understand how your parenting has been affected by your past as well as the present. This is not about blaming anyone for how you were brought up but about how you as an individual experience life. Working in this way allows you to grow into the parent you wish to be, making informed choices based on a better understanding of who you are both as an individual and as a parent.

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