There are few experiences as universal to human existence as pregnancy and childbirth, and yet its most difficult parts — perinatal mood and anxiety disorders (PMADs) — are still dealt with in the shadows, shrouded in stigma. The fact is 1 in 5 new and expecting birthing people will experience a PMAD, yet among those who do many are afraid to talk about it, some are not even aware they’re experiencing one, and others don’t know where to turn for help. The fact is, when someone suffers from a maternal mental health disorder it affects not only them, their babies, partners, and families - it impacts our communities.
In the Previa Alliance Podcast series, Sarah Parkhurst and Whitney Gay are giving air to a vastly untapped topic by creating a space for their guests — including survivors of PMADs and healthcare professionals in maternal mental health — to share their experiences and expertise openly. And in doing so, Sarah and Whitney make it easy to dig deep and get real about the facts of perinatal mental health, fostering discussions about the raw realities of motherhood. Not only will Previa Alliance Podcast listeners walk away from each episode with a sense of belonging, they’ll also be armed with evidence-based tools for healing, coping mechanisms, and the language to identify the signs and symptoms of PMADs — the necessary first steps in a path to treatment. The Previa Alliance Podcast series is intended for anyone considering pregnancy, currently pregnant, and postpartum as well as the families and communities who support them.
Sarah Parkhurst
Previa Alliance Podcast Co-host; Founder & CEO of Previa Alliance
A postpartum depression survivor and mom to two boys, Sarah is on a mission to destigmatize the experiences of perinatal mood and anxiety disorders (PMADs), and to educate the world on the complex reality of being a mom. Sarah has been working tirelessly to bring to light the experiences of women who have not only suffered a maternal mental health crisis but who have survived it and rebuilt their lives. By empowering women to share their own experiences, by sharing expert advice and trusted resources, and by advocating for health care providers and employers to provide support for these women and their families, Sarah believes as a society we can minimize the impact of the current maternal mental health crisis, while staving off future ones.
Whitney Gay
Previa Alliance Podcast Co-host; licensed clinician and therapist
For the past ten years, Whitney has been committed to helping women heal from the trauma of a postpartum mental health crisis as well as process the grief of a miscarriage or the loss of a baby. She believes that the power of compassion paired with developing critical coping skills helps moms to heal, rebuild, and eventually thrive. In the Previa Alliance Podcast series, Whitney not only shares her professional expertise, but also her own personal experiences of motherhood and recovery from grief.
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
0:00
|
13:08
Nobody should walk into labor, an epidural, or a C-section feeling like the process is a mystery.
In this episode, we discuss why clear patient education is often missing, how fear of the unknown can increase anxiety and contribute to birth trauma, and the real-world challenges providers face in preparing families for delivery.
We also share practical ways to advocate for better communication, set realistic expectations for birth, and process difficult experiences, offering support for anyone who is pregnant, postpartum, or helping a loved one navigate the journey.
Hi guys, welcome to Preview Lions Podcast. This is Sarah, and I've got my girl Whitney. Hi, Whitney. Hey friends. So, Whitney, I sent this to you and I was like, let's talk about this on the podcast. How all best podcast topics come upon us for preview podcasts.
But I was watching, I was on Instagram. Um, I don't think we're gonna call it Doom Scrolling, but you know, just taking a piece of regular scrolling, no doom. Regular scrolling, not doom scrolling. And there was um, she's a CRNA and she's uh she had two or three kids. She's fabulous, but she does like a lot of education about epidurals and labor. And she did this reel that was in detail of how she explains to her patients what to expect, getting prepped for a C-section and just for and like for a vaginal birth, an epidural. And the level of detail that she was describing of like, okay, you're gonna hear me open this, you're gonna hear, you're gonna feel something sticky, you're gonna feel this pressure. I'm gonna ask you this. And you know, my reaction to that was actually really sad. And I remember saying to you, I was like, I just feel so sad that not just for me, because I did not have that. No one explained at all what was going to occur. And you know, with my oldest birth, it was traumatic, fast, didn't have time to completely understand that. But my youngest, it was a scheduled C-section that did turn a little left, you know, went straight, but the scheduled part and the epidural part, it was never explained.
SPEAKER_01
So you clearly must know that information. Do you feel like they just thought, well, what why would we tell her what's going to happen?
SPEAKER_00
And you know, I don't know because I know I don't even know if it was even discussed with it, it was a teaching hospital. You know, there was a fellow and a resident there and attending. And, you know, I had said openly, hey, I'm really nervous about going back into the OR. I'm having panic attacks, honestly, towards the end of my practice pregnancy. You know, it was a lot. And so yes, I had it. It was a traumatic general anesthesia C section, but like I never had the epidural part, you know, so that was all new to me because it was all general with my oldest. Oh no. So I had, I honestly didn't know. I mean, I'd seen it and through nursing clinicals and stuff, but I I was just sitting there feeling like I have no idea what's occurring to my body.
SPEAKER_01
Right.
SPEAKER_00
And that felt, I mean, it just took on a whole level of anxiety and fear that didn't need to happen. Right. It made me think, how many moms experience that? Right. That they are not educated, that they don't know what's happening to their body or happening to their baby, and just the level of detail that she was providing on the reel.
unknown
Right.
SPEAKER_00
I never heard probably a lot of medical things described like that. Right. And you're a nurse. And I'm a nurse. And I'm like, wow, how amazing would that be? Right. And how many, how much anxiety
could be reduced, how many PTSD could be reduced for moms, how much more trust of healthcare providers could happen, how much more honesty of how they actually feel. I mean, you know, we know there's failures of our system currently, right now, right? With them and you go in for OB appointments or medical appointments, you know, the appointments are short. The providers are seeing a lot of patients. We've lack of providers, especially, you know, in the southeast. We have maternity deserts. I mean, women are driving two plus hours to see their doctor. One, what? And women often feel afraid to ask the questions. Like, do they feel like I don't want to act like I don't want to scene, like I don't know what I do, and I don't want to what's if she thinks I'm stupid. What's it that's a stupid question? Or you know, maybe they do ask and they're shut down. Right. That happens. And so I do think in situations like this, I'm grateful for this creator because you know, she filled kind of that educational gap of what a provider should be doing. So I think social media has great places for that. Right. But I think the bottom line is when it comes to birth experiences, healthcare providers generally assume patients understand and know more than they actually do.
SPEAKER_01
Oh, absolutely. Thousand percent.
SPEAKER_00
Thousand percent. I think that's again, an opportunity of where as a patient, you know, you're like, well, they should be telling me they stuff. Well, then you have to come to the realization that you have to self-educate yourself. And that's another thing on to you, but you have to say, I need you to walk me through this. I need to know what's gonna happen in this situation. And, you know, one thing that I love that we did a previous is, you know, we have on for our for our previous moms, we have Jenny, who's fabulous, who is a labor delivery nurse, has explained kind of what to expect. Even I mean, it's so scary, even going in to give birth to be like, okay, you're gonna put an IVM me now, and then what's hooking up? I mean, you just feel like you have no control of your body. Right. And so I think the fear of unknowns, we know this makes it worse. We have anticipatory, like you're I'm you're anticipating, and you're that's giving yourself anxiety. Trauma worsens when people feel powerless or uninformed, right? So then we have that trauma, and it's like it gets catapulted in to their experience because there's just that lack of knowing of what's happening. And education has been proven one of the most powerful ways for people to care about their own health and decrease anxiety and trauma. So,
what do you advise? You know, and I know you hear this from your patients who experienced a lot of birth trauma because that happens quite a bit. What would you say if you could have a conversation just, you know, for this is healthcare providers, we're gonna change the system? Let's just say we have a power in this conversation that's gonna be impactful and change how things are done. Is you know, what would you want to see that would have really been beneficial to your clients?
SPEAKER_01
I think just a provider that didn't brush people off, that's willing to take five minutes. Yeah, five minutes and say, okay, if you're having a c-section, this is what it looks like. If it is an emergency C-section, you need to understand that we may not be able to explain everything to you in real time. Not because we don't care about you or your baby, but because we do have to get to the OR very quickly. It is an emergency situation. So if that were to occur, you're gonna see, you know, your room kind of gets flooded with all these people. You're gonna have NICU staff on hand. So providing that education before it occurs, not that mom may even remember all of that when the emergency happens because it's it's chaos, but at least there's some preparation for a vaginal delivery, explaining to the patient, okay, well, this is what happens with this. You know, here's the difference between a tear and an epesiotomy. This is, you know, different coping skills for non-medicated and epidural medicated and things like that, you know, and how long are you going to give me to push and you know, different things like that, just saying, hey, let's take some time, talk about parameters, talk about what to expect with the different scenarios. And it's been a while, but we had her on mommy labor nurse. She's got a lot of great courses that really goes through kind of what to expect in any type of delivery situation. And I just wish we would see more of that come from the OB offices. Even if they had a nurse practitioner on hand that strictly did L and D education, and you met with her, you know, in a separate appointment or adjacent to your OB appointment for 10 minutes to go through all that.
unknown
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01
I think that could go a long way.
SPEAKER_00
Absolutely. So, what are some of the things that clients, you know? I felt grief when I saw that. What are some responses you hear from your clients who have felt like, hey, I was left in the dark. I felt like I had no control. No one told me that. What do you see
when they come see you? Because mine's grief, right? Some's resentment, some's trauma. What more are they saying?
SPEAKER_01
Grief, anger, frustration, they feel dismissed. That is probably a huge one. It's just feeling overall dismissed because, you know, when we talk about OBs, you have such a rapport and such a vulnerable relationship with that specific type of doctor to feel kind of thrown to the wayside or dismissed. That's not the specialty that you want to feel that from.
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01
You know, we I hate to say it, but having worked in the hospital, you kind of expect that from an orthopedic doctor. You kind of expect that from a cardiac doctor, you know, a GI doctor, you kind of expect it to be very straightforward, kind of bullet pointed. You don't expect it to be a warm situation. OB, you would hope it would be some semi-warm. Yes. You know, not that I'm coming to you for a hug and to have warm fuzzies, but I would hope that we would have, you know, a dash of bedside manner.
SPEAKER_00
Yeah. And I think, you know, then processing that and going to like a therapist, if you did experience that, is super helpful saying, I feel regret, I feel dismissed. Let's process that and let's talk through that. And, you know, if you're pregnant right now or know someone is, just really encourage them to ask for that education. I need to be walk me through what's going to happen here. If you can't, can I schedule a separate time? Is there a nurse practitioner? Do you have does the hospital give a hospital tour? Do they have a nurse educator?
SPEAKER_01
You know, like uh what options are available here?
SPEAKER_00
Right. You can you have to ask for that education often. Sometimes it may not just be given to you, which is frustrating. But you're gonna probably have to do that in motherhood. So it's a good starting point, anyways, to start saying, I need to know the details, where hen and why, where do I go if my water breaks, show me which place, where should I park. I mean, even things like where should I park, not knowing where to go. That's very stressful. So ask for the details, keep asking. And if you feel like me
have had an experience, you're going, my gosh, I wish I would have had that, don't say grieve that, feel that you're allowed to, you can have a voice. Process that have a voice and use that to share your experience. If you go back and you have the same for our be like, you know, this this would have been really helpful for me to have this differently. Or, you know, if you are in the position to educate people, educate, find that if you work in the hospital and you're like, bring that to quality, bring that to someone and say, Hey, I have a great idea. This is a need. But just an off-topic of if you've ever felt a motherhood out of control or you didn't know what's going on, that you later and later look back and say, wow, it could education could have gone a long way for me. Absolutely. We just want to let you know you're not alone in that. Correct. So, Whitney, thank you. We're thankful for therapists like you to help us process things when it doesn't go the right way. We should. Right. We all need that opportunity. But if you're in a position to educate people no matter where you are and what aspect of life, take that as a gift and share them what you wish you would have known.
SPEAKER_01
Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00
All right, listeners, till next time. Bye. Maternal mental health is as important as physical 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 Parkers, 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.
