Postpartum Anxiety Counseling
You can't stop the worry. You can't sleep even when the baby sleeps. Your mind won't turn off.
Dancing Bee Counseling provides specialized therapy for postpartum anxiety (PPA). The racing thoughts, the constant checking, the terrifying intrusive thoughts that make you feel like you're going crazy: these are symptoms of a treatable condition, not signs that you're a bad parent. I help new parents find relief from the relentless anxiety that's stealing these precious early months.
What Is Postpartum Anxiety?
All new parents worry. Postpartum anxiety is different. It's worry that won't stop, that wakes you at 3am even when your baby is sleeping peacefully. It's checking the baby's breathing repeatedly, unable to trust that everything is okay. It's a constant undercurrent of dread that something terrible is about to happen.
Postpartum anxiety (PPA) is a perinatal mood disorder separate from postpartum depression, though they often occur together. While postpartum depression involves sadness and loss of interest, PPA involves relentless worry, racing thoughts, hypervigilance, and often physical symptoms like racing heart, tight chest, and difficulty breathing.
PPA often goes undiagnosed because the symptoms can look like "just being a worried new parent." But there's a difference between normal parental concern and anxiety that hijacks your ability to function, rest, or enjoy your baby. If worry is running your life, you don't have to accept it as normal.
Postpartum anxiety affects up to 15-20% of new mothers and a significant number of fathers and non-birthing partners. It can develop during pregnancy or any time in the first year after birth. And it is treatable.
What Postpartum Anxiety Feels Like
Your brain is a search engine for danger. It runs constantly, scanning for threats to your baby, generating worst-case scenarios, refusing to let you rest. Even when everything is objectively fine, your body stays in fight-or-flight mode.
You might feel like you're the only thing standing between your baby and disaster. You can't relax. You can't sleep even when you're exhausted. You can't stop the thoughts. And you might be afraid to tell anyone because what if they think you're crazy, or unfit, or dangerous?
You're not crazy. You're experiencing a recognized medical condition, and you can get better.
Symptoms of Postpartum Anxiety
PPA can manifest in many ways. Here's what to watch for.
Racing Thoughts
Your mind won't slow down. Thoughts loop endlessly: what if scenarios, worries, plans to prevent disasters that probably won't happen.
Hypervigilance
Constantly monitoring the baby, checking breathing, unable to look away or trust that they're okay. Watching for any sign something is wrong.
Intrusive Thoughts
Unwanted, scary thoughts about harm coming to your baby. Images that pop into your mind uninvited and leave you feeling horrified.
Can't Sleep
Lying awake even when baby is sleeping, too wired to rest. Mind racing through worries. Exhausted but unable to turn off.
Physical Symptoms
Racing heart, shortness of breath, tight chest, nausea, dizziness, sweating. Your body is stuck in alarm mode.
Avoidance
Avoiding places, activities, or situations that trigger anxiety. Staying home because going out feels too risky.
Panic Attacks
Sudden overwhelming fear, heart pounding, can't breathe, feeling like you might die or lose control. These can come out of nowhere.
Need for Control
Difficulty letting anyone else care for baby. Needing to supervise everything. Unable to trust others to keep baby safe.
Irritability
Snapping at your partner, feeling on edge, short temper. Anxiety often shows up as anger or frustration.
About Those Intrusive Thoughts
One of the most terrifying symptoms of postpartum anxiety is intrusive thoughts: unwanted, disturbing thoughts or images about harm coming to your baby. These might include thoughts of dropping your baby, fears about SIDS, images of accidents, or other scary scenarios.
If you're having these thoughts, you're probably wondering if you're losing your mind. You might be afraid to tell anyone because you think they'll take your baby away. You might be avoiding being alone with your baby or avoiding situations that trigger the thoughts.
Here's what you need to know: intrusive thoughts are extremely common in the postpartum period, affecting up to 90% of new parents. The thoughts themselves don't mean anything about who you are or what you might do.
🌿 The Key Distinction
With postpartum anxiety and postpartum OCD, you are horrified by these thoughts. You don't want to act on them. Having intrusive thoughts does NOT mean you are dangerous or will harm your baby. It means your anxious brain is working overtime.
Types of Postpartum Anxiety
PPA can manifest in different ways. You might recognize one or more of these patterns.
Generalized Postpartum Anxiety
Constant, pervasive worry about multiple areas: baby's health, your parenting, relationships, finances, the future. The worry floats from topic to topic, always finding something new to latch onto.
Postpartum Panic Disorder
Recurring panic attacks with intense physical symptoms. Fear of having more attacks. May lead to avoiding situations where attacks have occurred or where escape would be difficult.
Postpartum OCD
Intrusive, unwanted thoughts (obsessions) often about harm to baby, followed by behaviors to reduce the anxiety (compulsions) like checking, cleaning, or mental rituals. Very distressing but thoughts are ego-dystonic (unwanted).
Postpartum PTSD
Following traumatic birth or NICU experience. Flashbacks, nightmares, hypervigilance, emotional numbing. Avoiding reminders of the trauma. Can develop in fathers and partners too.
Physical Symptoms of Postpartum Anxiety
Anxiety isn't just in your head. Your body feels it too.
Racing Heart
Heart pounding, palpitations
Shortness of Breath
Can't get a deep breath
Sweating
Hot flashes, cold sweats
Nausea
Stomach upset, loss of appetite
Dizziness
Lightheaded, unsteady
Muscle Tension
Tight shoulders, jaw, back
Trembling
Shaking, feeling weak
Restlessness
Can't sit still, agitation
Postpartum Anxiety Treatment
I provide evidence-based therapy that helps you find relief from the relentless worry.
CBT for Anxiety
Cognitive behavioral therapy to identify and change the thought patterns driving your anxiety. Learning to challenge catastrophic thinking.
Intrusive Thoughts Work
Specialized approaches for scary thoughts. Understanding why your brain generates them, and learning to respond without fear or compulsion.
Somatic Techniques
Working with the body to calm the nervous system. Breathing exercises, grounding, and tools for managing physical symptoms of anxiety.
Strategies for the cruel irony of postpartum insomnia. Helping you rest when the baby sleeps instead of lying awake worrying.
How anxiety affects your relationship. Communication tools, sharing the load, helping your partner understand what you're experiencing.
If medication might help, I coordinate with prescribers. Information about safe options for breastfeeding parents.
When Anxiety Follows Infertility
If you experienced anxiety during infertility or pregnancy after infertility, you may find that the anxiety continues or intensifies postpartum. This isn't surprising: your nervous system learned during infertility that terrible things can happen, that hope can lead to devastation. That hypervigilance that helped you survive may now be making the postpartum period even harder.
Anxiety that began during infertility and never fully resolved
Hypervigilance from pregnancy after loss carrying into parenthood
Feeling like you can't relax because you "know" how quickly things can go wrong
Difficulty trusting that this baby is healthy and safe after so much loss
I understand how infertility shapes the postpartum experience. My approach addresses both the current anxiety symptoms and the history that may be contributing to them.
Who Benefits from PPA Counseling
You can't stop the racing thoughts and constant worry about your baby
You can't sleep even when the baby is sleeping peacefully
You're having scary intrusive thoughts that terrify you
You check on the baby constantly and can't trust they're okay
You're experiencing panic attacks or near-constant physical anxiety
You're avoiding activities or places because of anxiety
You can't let anyone else care for your baby
You experienced infertility and the anxiety never stopped
Questions About Postpartum Anxiety
What is postpartum anxiety?
Postpartum anxiety (PPA) is a perinatal mood disorder characterized by excessive worry, racing thoughts, and physical symptoms of anxiety that develop during pregnancy or the first year after birth. Unlike the occasional worry that all new parents experience, PPA involves persistent, intrusive anxiety that interferes with daily functioning and the ability to care for yourself and your baby. Symptoms include constant worry about the baby's health and safety, racing or intrusive thoughts, difficulty sleeping even when the baby sleeps, physical symptoms like racing heart and shortness of breath, and a sense of dread or doom. PPA often goes undiagnosed because the symptoms can look like "normal new parent worry" or because screening focuses primarily on depression.
Is it normal to have scary thoughts about my baby?
Intrusive thoughts about harm coming to your baby are actually very common in the postpartum period, affecting up to 90% of new parents. These are unwanted, distressing thoughts that pop into your mind uninvited, often involving images of the baby being hurt, dropped, or in danger. The key distinction is between intrusive thoughts and harmful intent. With postpartum anxiety or postpartum OCD, you are horrified by these thoughts. You don't want to act on them; in fact, you may go to great lengths to avoid situations that trigger them. Having intrusive thoughts does NOT mean you are dangerous or that you will harm your baby. It means your anxious brain is working overtime to protect your child. If these thoughts are distressing you, therapy can help.
What is the difference between postpartum anxiety and postpartum depression?
Postpartum anxiety (PPA) and postpartum depression (PPD) are separate conditions, though they can occur together. PPD is characterized primarily by sadness, hopelessness, loss of interest, fatigue, and sometimes thoughts of self-harm. PPA is characterized primarily by excessive worry, racing thoughts, hypervigilance, physical anxiety symptoms, and often intrusive thoughts. Someone with PPA might not feel sad at all but instead feels wired, on edge, and unable to relax. They may check on the baby constantly, struggle to let others help, and experience physical symptoms like racing heart, tight chest, and digestive issues. Many people have both conditions simultaneously, and it's possible to have anxiety without depression or depression without anxiety. Both are treatable with therapy and sometimes medication.
How long does postpartum anxiety last?
Without treatment, postpartum anxiety can last months or even years. Some parents report that untreated PPA evolved into generalized anxiety disorder that persisted long after the postpartum period. With treatment, most people begin to feel significant improvement within weeks to months. Therapy teaches coping skills and helps retrain the anxious brain, while medication can provide relief while you're learning new patterns. The timeline varies depending on the severity of symptoms, whether you've had anxiety before, your support system, and how early you seek treatment. Early intervention typically leads to faster recovery. If you've been struggling for any length of time, it's not too late to get help.
Can postpartum anxiety start months after birth?
Yes, postpartum anxiety can develop any time during the first year after birth, not just in the immediate weeks following delivery. Some parents feel fine initially and then develop anxiety symptoms months later. Triggers can include returning to work, changes in routine, sleep deprivation catching up, weaning from breastfeeding, or delayed processing of birth trauma. Anxiety that develops months after birth is still considered postpartum anxiety and deserves the same treatment and support. Some parents don't realize what they're experiencing is PPA because they expect it would have started right after birth. If you're experiencing anxiety symptoms within the first year postpartum, regardless of when they started, you can benefit from treatment.
Abby Lemke, MS, LPC-IT
Perinatal Anxiety Specialist
I understand the exhausting reality of postpartum anxiety: the thoughts that won't stop, the physical symptoms that keep you on edge, the fear that something is terribly wrong with you. I also understand that talking about intrusive thoughts feels terrifying. You're not going to scare me or shock me. I've heard it before, and I know it doesn't mean what you fear it means.
As a member of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine with specialized training in perinatal mental health, I bring expertise in both anxiety disorders and the unique challenges of the postpartum period. If your anxiety is connected to infertility or pregnancy loss, I understand that history too.
You don't have to keep white-knuckling through every day. Let me help you find relief.
More About AbbyPostpartum Anxiety Counseling in Madison, Wisconsin
🐝 Dancing Bee Counseling
Office Address
101 E Main St, Suite 4
Waunakee, WI 53597
Phone
608-967-6105Serving Dane County and Beyond
You Can Feel Better
Postpartum anxiety is treatable. You don't have to keep suffering in silence.
In-person in Waunakee · Telehealth throughout Wisconsin