Having a baby. It feels like a big decision. A decision that affects all aspects of your life. For some people, there's not much to weigh up. They've always known they wanted children; they just need to figure out when. For other people, the decision to have a baby involves a more active process.

Psychologist, Dr Shikkiah de Quadros-Wander from the Antenatal & Postnatal Psychology Network was interviewed by ABC News, and she suggests some helpful questions for couples to ask themselves.

​Read the article here.

The children are asleep. The house is quiet. You're exhausted. Time to sleep.
But you can't.
Your mind is rehashing the day. Thoughts come up about tomorrow, next week, the future.
And then you start worrying about not being able to sleep. You look at the clock. Time is moving.
You think "how am I going to get through tomorrow?"
You try deep breathing. That helps. But your mind is still going.
You say to yourself "stop thinking and go to sleep".
You put on relaxation music, but your mind is still going.
You start to feel anxious.
You count sheep, but your thoughts creep back in.
The more you 'try' to sleep, the more sleep eludes you.

Sleep onset difficulties strike many busy parents. Dr Luc Beaudoin, is an adjunct Professor in Cognitive Science at Simon Fraser University. He says that when our brain's executive function is 'firing', we are accessing memory, evaluation, planning, scheduling, and problem solving. He refers to this as "mental peturbance". When these mental actions are in play, our brains are too active to settle to sleep.

Dr Beaudoin has developed a simple cognitive tool  that interrupts and counteracts these processes. It's called "cognitive shuffling".

The approach moves you from of a high state of alertness, towards drifting off to sleep. Cognitive shuffling scrambles your thoughts so that your brain can't try to make sense of things. It interrupts the processes of memory, evaluation, planning, scheduling and problem solving.

Here's how it's done.

1. Pick a word such as "bedtime".
2. Begin with the first letter "b" and think of a word that starts with the letter "b". For example "broom". Bring up the mental image of a broom. Then think of another word that begins with the letter "b" and visualise that word. Keep going until you run out of words that begin with the letter "b".
3. Go to the next letter in "bedtime" - "e", and think of words that begin with "e". Visualise the words as you think of them.
4. Continue at your own pace, but just keep going until you fall asleep. Dr Beaudoin recommends if stressful thoughts come your way, just acknowledge them and go back to shuffling your thoughts instead.

Sleep deprivation is a harsh reality of parenthood, but there's nothing more frustrating than not being able to sleep because of your own mind. Dr Beaudoin's cognitive shuffling technique, may be the answer to settling your busy mind, and optimising your sleep.

If you need a little help, Dr Beaudoin has translated cognitive science into a sleep app called mysleepbutton.com®.

Publications:
http://www.sfu.ca/~lpb/pubs.html

Written by Dr Renée Miller
Perinatal Clinical Psychologist
Antenatal & Postnatal Psychology Network

Pregnancy is a time of great uncertainty - a time when horror stories are rife and fears about harm befalling one’s baby, common. Anxiety can be particularly significant for women who have experienced pregnancy losses (or vicarious losses through family or friends); been through the ‘roller coaster’ of fertility treatment; received diagnoses of fetal anomalies; or who have experienced a previous traumatic birth. In addition, an anxious temperament can pre-dispose women to heightened anxiety in pregnancy, especially in the face of stressful life events.
 
Although anxiety tends to be seen as the 'normal' emotional landscape for pregnant women, elevated levels of anxiety can be debilitating, and can contribute to emotional disturbance in the postnatal period.  Symptoms of antenatal anxiety might be overlooked by common symptoms of pregnancy such as increases in heart rate, shallow breathing, and sleep disturbance (Wenzel, 2011).  

In order to identify whether symptoms are problematic, the questions for women to ask themselves and/or their health practitioners are 1.  "Are my symptoms interfering with my life (e.g., avoidance of usual activities for fear of feeling anxious, relationship problems, sleep disturbance, constant reassurance seeking)?" and 2. "Are my symptoms causing me distress (e.g. upsetting or intrusive thoughts and/or distressing symptoms in the body)?"  (Wenzel, 2011)

Women do not need to experience high levels of anxiety and worry in pregnancy or the postpartum.  Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT) can help women to learn how to manage both the physiological (body) symptoms, and the mental worry, which can contribute to a calmer pregnancy, birth, and adjustment to new parenthood. 
 
Perinatal Clinical Psychologist, Dr Renée Miller shares a useful video: Managing Your Mind: Taming Worry

References

Wenzel, A. (2011).  Anxiety in childbearing women. Washington: American Psychological Association.
Wenzel, A. & Kleiman, K. (2015).  Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for perinatal distress.  New York: Taylor & Francis.

Developing a comfortable and healthy relationship with our baby is perhaps the single most important role we can fulfil as a parent. Being with our babies in a relationship where we are present and attuned to their needs, helps them experience what it is like to feel safe and secure. This is the foundation babies need to develop positive feelings about themselves, thereby setting them up to optimise their full potential. As well, this first relationship with their parent serves as a blueprint for many future relationships in their lifetime. Feeling heard and understood and having emotional needs met helps individuals function productively in relationships.

It it safe to say that every parent has the best intention for an unblemished relationship with their child, yet this does not always go to plan. We can hit bumps in the early weeks or months of being a parent leaving us feeling doubtful about this new relationship. We may feel anxious, lost, even frightened of this much anticipated new arrival. For many parents, there can be feelings of aloneness or emptiness - a contrast to the joy they may have expected. What can follow are feelings of guilt, even shame, for not enjoying the parenting journey, compounded by crippling thoughts of being a bad parent. So powerful can this state of mind be that parents describe feeling stuck or frozen - caught between their internal turmoil and desperate attempts to care for the baby they so love and cherish.  

Human beings are complex. Each of us carries a story about relationships, and it begins with the people we first formed them with – our parents. This very first relationship has significant impact on the way we view ourselves and our place in the world. We develop emotional and behavioural patterns from these relationships and they become a part of ‘who we are’. For example, we might find that we are sensitive to a certain look or a tone. A look or a tone that can seem harmless enough, yet is able to rouse an emotional response so powerful and strong within us. Why is that? It is possible that the look or tone is familiar to us somehow, triggering emotions associated with our very early experiences of being in relationship with significant adults when we ourselves were children. This unique experience does not live in our awareness; it is embedded deep within us. Sometimes these emotional reactions are positive - received like a warm blanket. Other times they are negative and we feel alone and vulnerable, unprotected, unheard or misunderstood. Either way, they are feeling memories arising from our early relationships. 

Because of the closeness of the parent-infant relationship, our babies’ behaviour can inadvertently trigger old unresolved dynamics from our early relationships. Some parents experience feelings of anxiety or dread when their baby signals a need for proximity and comfort through crying or unsettledness. Others experience sadness, alarm or a feeling of rejection when their baby crawls away from them to explore the environment. Even though we may reasonably acknowledge that babies lack the sophistication to deliberately upset us, the emotions stirred up in us are so strong that it’s easy to think they are doing just that. What is not available to us at the time, is the knowledge that our baby’s behaviour is merely triggering our own experiences of unmet needs from our childhood - our parents’ own struggle with providing comfort when we needed it, or their discomfort with supporting our need for autonomy and independence. Making sense of our childhood experiences helps us to be more open to seeing our babies’ needs as separate to our experiences. It might give us the space to feel at ease with our babies, attending to their needs and connecting with them in the way we intend. It frees us up to have the kind of relationship with them that reminds them that they are special to us and that we can support them with both their need for comfort and their curiosity for learning about the world around them.

It is also important to remember that as much as we wish, we will never have the relationship running ‘right’ one hundred percent of the time. After all, experiencing pain and disappointment is part of the territory of being human. If we get it right enough of the time, we are doing a good enough job. Equally important to remember is that repairing the relationship with our child when we recognise we have missed the mark, is a powerful human gesture. Repairing and rebuilding teaches children important lessons of trust and hope. It gives them scope to be imperfect but still loved.

Tips

• Smile at your baby and gaze into their eyes. When your baby looks away, this could signal they need a break; wait for them to reconnect with you. This tells your baby you respect their need for space and that you will be there for them when they are ready. 
• Respond to your baby’s vocalisations. Imitate your baby’s sounds. Take turns talking.
• Sing to your baby.
• Be curious - look at what your baby is looking at. See the world from their perspective. Notice what your baby is interested in and use words to describe it.
• When your baby is crying, tell them that you are there. Hold your baby as this helps to sooth them, even if they continue to cry.
• Hold in mind how your baby is feeling. 
• Be with your baby in all their feelings so they know you love them no matter what they are going through.
• Delight in your baby. 

 
This article was written by Psychologist, Kanthi Sayers from the Antenatal & Postnatal Psychology Network. Kanthi draws on the theoretical underpinnings of attachment theory and the teachings of Circle of Security. www.circleofsecurityinternational.com

Reference
Hoffman, K. Cooper, G., Powell, B. (2017). Raising a Secure Child: How Circle of Security Parenting can help you nurture your child’s attachment, emotional resilience, and freedom to explore. New York: The Guildford Press.

www.antenatalandpostnatalpsychology.com.au
www.facebook.com/antenatal.postnatal.psychology

Worry strikes us all, particularly in the childbearing years.

Women who are trying to conceive can find the two-week wait interminable. A time when worry and fear can ramp up, out of control. The mind can become consumed by fearful thoughts. "What if I'm not pregnant?", "What if I'm going to need IVF?" "What if we can't have the family we've always dreamed of?"

When pregnant, waiting for a scan, can mess with your mind. "What if there's something wrong with the baby?" "How would we cope?"

Women (especially those who have experienced a previous loss) can find themselves agonising over potential feared outcomes of something being wrong with the baby, of losing the baby, or of having a negative birth outcome.

Then, when we become parents, the worries can be endless. "What if he doesn't sleep tonight?" "What if there's a developmental problem with my toddler?" "What if my child doesn't have friends?" What if my child becomes a bully?"

The fact is that any thought that begins with "what if" is by its very nature, not true. That doesn't mean that bad things don't happen. They do. But more often than not, our worries don't end up manifesting. And when bad things happen, we attend to the situation, drawing from our internal and external resources to cope, and we deal with what is actually happening. 

Worrying endlessly about things that could go wrong, is mentally exhausting. What people often don't realise is that we can manage our minds better than we think we can.

The first step is to recognise that our thoughts are not truths. When we worry about a future scenario that hasn't happened, we remove ourselves from the life we have right now. "What if" thoughts make us feel anxious and stressed. People typically look back at their worries and wish they hadn't wasted all that time fretting. 

So how do we manage fear and worry? What do we do when "what if" thoughts intrude?

This short video uses a Mindfulness-based, visual approach to help you to manage your worry and tame your mind. It takes practice, but you can do it!

Click on this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWrTcLmj6yI

Written by Dr Renée Miller
Perinatal Clinical Psychologist
​Antenatal & Postnatal Psychology Network

We live in a world where striving is seen as thriving. But is it? 

We can become attached to the mindset of striving for more, striving to be better, striving for perfection. But at what cost?

We develop expectations and desires that set us up to feel unfulfilled if things aren’t a certain way. We can hold high expectations of ourselves, our partners, our children, our parents, and our friends. We can feel disappointed and let down when people don’t behave in the ways we want them to.

We can believe that if we don’t hold on tightly to our high expectations, we will in some way fail, our lives will be out of control, or that we don’t stand for much.

Reflecting on two decades of working as a Psychologists with pregnant women and new parents, it struck me that much of people’s growth and happiness comes not from what they strive for, but from what they let go of.
 
I turned my attention to my clients (no identities disclosed) and to our Facebook followers to find out what people have let go of for a happier life. This is what I found:

As a parent

I let go of striving to return to my pre-baby body, and decided to just maintain a healthy lifestyle.

I let go of needing to clean and tidy my house before I'd have visitors, and now I don't care.

I let go of apologizing for the mess in my house and now I say “you can see a lot of fun has been had around here.”

I let go of expecting my child to get dressed by himself, and kept dressing him to get out of the house without shouting. Then one day, he said “I CAN DO IT!”

I let go of comparing my house and my clothes to other parents.

I let go of worrying about how other parents see me as a parent. I learnt to recognise that everyone is different and that everyone does what works best for them.

I’ve let go of all the guilt I used to feel when failing to adhere to parental “shoulds”.

I let go of expecting my kid to be like other kids or to fit the expectations I had of her based on my own interests and experiences. 

I let go of thinking I’d be happy when my daughter got through the present phase and into the next phase.

Own behaviour

I let go of trying to do so much. Once the kids are asleep I watch TV or read a book. I need some time on my own to relax.

I let go of a high stress really well-paying job - working 12 hours a day every day even weekends to take a much lower paying job where I am just a regular worker rather than the boss and it’s made me the happiest I have ever been. I don’t even miss the pay cheque.

I let go of feeling guilty for doing things I enjoy.

I let go of trying to meet everyone’s needs before my own family’s. Now I tell the broader family what works for us and what doesn’t.

I let go of the urgency I had felt to find my ultimate job when my babies were small. Now I say to myself “all in good time”.

I let go of all the stuff around the house that I hadn’t used for a while, but was keeping just in case. 

I let go of ‘beating myself up’ if I said something inappropriate. We can all do that sometimes. If I offend someone, I apologize.

I let go of worrying about the future. That was big!

Social media

I let go of checking social media through the day, and I’m now more present with my children. This makes me SO much happier.

I’ve let go of connecting ‘likes’ on social media to my worth as a person.

I let go of looking at my phone in bed. I’m enjoying reading books and talking to my partner instead.

I recognise that what people post on social media is what they want others to see or think. I let go of letting other people’s ‘fabulous’ lives impact the way I see mine.

Friendships

Once I became a parent, I realised that my friends were busy with their children, and I let go of my expectations about how often we should catch up.

I let go of needing my friends to be there for me when I was struggling, and realised that some people can be there, and other people find emotions hard to deal with. I accept now that some of my friends are just fun friends.

I’ve let go of friendships which felt really hard to maintain or would leave me feeling exhausted afterwards (and they too have let me go). 

Relationship

I let go of needing my partner to notice the mess, and just asked for what needed to be done around the house.

I let go of trying to change my partner to mould him into what I wanted. I try to focus on all the positive things about him.

I let go of needing things to be done in MY time (i.e. NOW) and recognise that people have different time lines.

Parents and In-laws

I stopped waiting for my mum to ask how she can help, and now I ask for help when I need it.

I let go of needing my parents’ approval. I feel so much lighter and no longer worry about how they see me.

I stopped wishing my parents could be tuned in to my feelings. I now realise they are both emotionally damaged, and don’t have the capacity to hear me or to validate me.

Relationship with myself

I let go of being unkind to myself. Self-critical thoughts were the most unhelpful and damaging thing I ever did to myself.

I stopped comparing my life to others’ lives: My house, my car, my children, my husband.

I let go of trying to prove myself to others. I’m honest about not knowing about certain things (like politics). 

I let go of thinking I had to constantly please others. 

So is all striving bad?

Letting go for a happier life, does not mean letting go of all striving. It’s about letting go of the striving that comes at a cost. 
 
It’s about checking in on whether the expectations we hold are helping or hindering our happiness. 

It’s about letting go of the unhelpful ‘shoulds’ and ‘should nots’ that we’ve mindlessly accumulated over time or that 'belong' to other people. 

It’s about treating ourselves with kindness and compassion and measuring ourselves according to our values – what really matters. 

What have you let go of for a happier life?

Written by Dr Renée Miller (Perinatal Clinical Psychologist)
This article has been written in the first person to reflect the individual views of people whose identities have been protected.

 

The problem with perfectionism is that there is no end to it.  We may continue to strive to be better, but the goal posts keep moving, and perfection eludes us. Some people say that perfectionism has been a good trait in the workplace, something that has helped them to  progress in their careers. Perfectionism shouldn't be mistaken for conscientiousness, drive, hard-work, commitment, care, or attention to detail. These qualities are certainly helpful in the workplace and in other settings. What this article is talking about is the extreme nature and bottomless pit of perfectionism. The kind of perfectionism that involves unrelenting expectations and standards for self and others, criticism of self and others, associated stress and anxiety, and commonly feeling dissatisfied or 'not good enough'.

Time and time again, we see new mums who with the best of intentions for their babies and families, are striving to be  ‘perfect’ mothers – to parent in the ‘perfect’ way.  The reason they are struggling, is often because this bottomless pit of striving sets them up to fail, and this perceived failure feels intolerable.  There is typically a lifetime of layers beneath the surface of this striving, which is certainly worthy of exploration.

Striving for perfection can seriously limit our capacity to enjoy life.  Perfection-striving is often associated with all-or-nothing or black-and- white thinking.  For example, the mum who won’t go to mother’s group if she is going to be late, misses out on the building of relationships with other mums (who are often late themselves). The mum who won’t exercise if she can’t exercise three times per week, misses out on the benefits of some exercise and a little time-out.  The mum who won’t invite people over unless she gets the time to make the house look immaculate, misses out on the fun and spontaneity of having other new mums and babies around for her own and her baby’s social well-being.  The mum who won’t let her partner settle the baby because he/she won’t do it like she does, misses out on her partner’s support and her partner's growing bond with the baby.

The bottom line is that there is no one way, and there is no right way.  When your hard and fast rules about how things should be, get in the way of the things that give your life meaning (i.e. the things that you really value) ask yourself if there is a middle ground?

The middle ground is a place where we strive for being ‘good-enough’ mothers.  Perfectionists usually see this term “good enough” as meaning mediocre.  However, ‘good-enough’ means good enough.  For example, getting to mothers group late is better than not going at all.  It can be a good laugh and a supportive environment.  Exercising whenever possible (despite wishing to achieve three exercise sessions per week) is better than nothing, and is likely to become easier to achieve over time.  Inviting friends over, even if the house is untidy, shows them that you are human after all (very comforting for most people), and demonstrates that you value friendships more than your domestic high standards.  Letting your partner settle the baby even if he/she does it differently to you, knowing that this is their chance to discover what works, and to establish a good bond.

The middle ground is a much kinder place – a place of acceptance, and openness to experience.  Try it.  You’ll see. You might even find that not only can you be a 'good-enough' mum, you can be a great mum!

If these tips are not enough, and your striving for perfection is causing you distress, it may be worthwhile to seek help.

Written by Dr Renée Miller
Principal Perinatal Clinical Psychologist
Founder Antenatal & Postnatal Psychology Network
Co-founder The Perinatal Loss Centre

Children love to win. But what happens when they lose? Children are inherently inept at managing their emotions. Losing a game, a race, or a sporting event, can feel overwhelming. One of our roles as parents is to teach our children how to lose with grace. Emotional regulation and good sportsmanship are vital skills in life.
 
So how do we do this?

Be mindful of what children observe in us 
It begins with what we model as parents. What do we demonstrate to our children about winning and losing? What do we say in front of our children about winning and losing? Children absorb our behaviours and our commentary, so we need to be mindful about what they see and what they hear.

First and foremost, our children need to see us lose with grace. They need to see that if things don’t go well for us, we learn from our mistakes, and we don’t blame.

Our children may see us barrack for our sporting team, but they need to see that we can commend the opposition if they win. They need to see us praise the effort of the losing team. They need to see that we don’t blame umpires. Everyone makes mistakes, and umpire decisions need to be accepted. 

Children need to see that when we (or our sporting teams) lose, we can learn from our losses, and we can move on...

Deal with winning and losing in family games
Don’t fall into the trap of constantly letting your child win. Children need to experience losing in an environment where losing is just part of the game. 

They need to be reminded that “sometimes we win and sometimes we lose”.  They need to hear us say “it’s only a game”. They need to learn that it’s not okay to lash out at others or to quit if it looks like they are not going to win. Everyone plays till the end, and everyone gets congratulated for a good game. The goal is the fun of playing together, rather than the win.

Validate their feelings
Children need to learn that it’s ok to feel frustrated, disappointed, or upset when they lose. Labelling and validating their feelings can help them to understand their feelings before they can move on. Once their feelings are heard, we can talk to them about being a good sport.

Overt the narrative of good sportsmanship
Our children need to see us praise sports people, tv contestants and public figures, who lose graciously. They need to hear a narrative about what it means to be a ‘good sport’. They need to see examples of sporting heroes who are gracious losers. When we value good sportsmanship, and highlight the associated commendable behaviours, our children learn about the value of these qualities, over and above the transient feeling of winning.
 
Praise effort
Children generally need to hear us praise their effort and encourage their learning and growth. This narrative is far more helpful for a child’s sense of self and sportsmanship than the one around winning, or being ‘the best’. 
 
Children need to hear that different people have different strengths. Some people are good at some things, and other people are good at other things. 
 
Children need to understand that trying something (even though they may not be good at it) is a show of bravery. 
 
Children need to learn that when we practise something, we can improve. 
 
Children need to learn that they can be happy for the successes of others.
 
Ultimately, children need to learn to appraise themselves according to their own benchmarks for success, rather than by comparing themselves to the performance of others. This is more likely if children are raised in an environment where competition is fun, winning is a bonus, and good sportsmanship and humility are qualities that are valued.

Written by Dr Renée Miller
Principal Clinical Psychologist
​Antenatal & Postnatal Psychology Network