Hey guys, this is Sarah with the Preview Alliance podcast. This month we are replaying our most downloaded episodes. These episodes are the ones that has resonated the most with you guys. So if you're a longtime listener, this is a great refresher and share this with a friend who may be new. If you're new, welcome and we hope that these episodes are impactful to you like it has been for others. Thank you for being with us and stay tuned. Hey guys, welcome back to Preview Alliance podcast. It's Sarah and Whitney. Okay, so we're in our pregnancy education series. That's right. We just covered depression. Now let's talk about anxiety during pregnancy. So there is actually a term anti-anatal anxiety. It is common. People talk about it. Could you hear a lot of depression? But anxiety has a big play. It really does. One in five. I would honestly say it's probably a little bit more because not everyone will report. Exactly. But then to clients that I work with to my knowledge, they've never been any part of like a research project or any type of stat gathering. So we don't really know if that data is as accurate as it could be. I would almost dare say maybe three out of five. Oh yeah. And then people are not like, we know this because we're in Preview and like you said, we have a higher number than one in five. That's expressing this. No one's checking in with them during their pregnancy. That's a problem. About mental health. So if this, we're going to talk about what it is, the risk factors, the difference between like worry, anxiety, I think that's a thing. For sure. And what you can do. Yes. What it is, anxiety is filling kind of like you're obsessing, you're hyper ventilating, panic attacks, heart palpitations, shortness of breath, hot flashes. It can be physical and mental presentations. And so it's like, what's the difference between anxiety and worry? So worry is going to be one of those more situational. Okay. It's not going to be something that consumes you for 20 out of 24 hours a day. So worry is something like. And worry probably has a light at the end of the tunnel. So it's like, okay, my kid is spiked a fever. I'm worried that it's cold flu season. Exactly. I'm worried we're going down this way. Yeah. Anxiety would be. Oh my gosh. My child has to have flu, RSV, COVID, pneumonia, something really bad. And they're going to end up at children's. They're going to end up on a ventilator. They're going to be an ICU. You can't shake it. And it's going to be again, the spiraling intrusive thoughts. It's going to be worst case scenario. Whereas, you know, as moms, we're going to worry about our kids naturally. Right. But we could say, okay, I'm really worried because you woke up from your nap with a 104 fever. We should be worried about that. And so, you know, you call the pediatrician, you're worried, okay, well, if they end up positive for, you know, flu, RSV, COVID, they're going to be out of school for a week at a minimum. How am I going to juggle calling out of work for a week and keeping them well and keeping my smaller child well? And you're going to be thinking through those things, which is a logical process. Right. And we'll not feel good because it is very worrisome. It is heavy. It is a lot to have to logistically deal with. But anxiety will take over your life. It will. And it will make you feel that inevitably it again, worst case scenario. Now, I'm not saying it's a best case scenario that you have to call out of work for a week. But we're also not in the ICU with our child on the ventilator two minutes after our kid popped a fever. Yeah. You know, that's where it becomes anxiety is going to be that worst case scenario thinking, we're going to have those intrusive thoughts. And it impedes our day today. Absolutely. And you know, with anxiety, you almost feel like there's an impending doom you can't get away from. Yeah. Almost like you've got a little black rain cloud just right there with you where worry is. Okay. They popped a fever. I'm going to go ahead and give them Motrin and Tylenol. You know what, as I can, I'm going to call the pediatrician and see if I can get them in there. If not, we're going to go to pediatric urgent care. We're going to get a swab. You may find yourself almost going into type a task organizer mode of, okay, well, we need to do, I need to go ahead and tell them. Tell them I work. Hey, my kid popped a fever today. I know they can't go to school tomorrow and tomorrow is Monday. I'm going to take them to urgent care and I'll keep you posted on if I have to take other days off of work. Right. Okay. Task manager right there. Boom, boom, boom. Gonna get our plan together because plans do help ease anxiety and worry. We know that. Yes. But if it's anxiety, again, you're thinking, well, what if we get our urgent care and they do have flu? And again, what if we do end up at children's and blah, blah, blah, blah, what if they have a febrile seizure? I'm going to lose my mind if they have a febrile seizure. What if we're in a car accident on the way to the urgent care? Yeah. I mean, we are kind of spiraling, but we're going in different directions while we spiral. It's a lot. So anxiety is going to be one of those. There's no real control with it. You can't rationalize yourself out back to just the day to day thing. It's like you're tumbling down a mountain, not a hill, a mountain and you can't stop. We're literally at avalanche starting. Exactly. Okay. And I'm like, okay, I don't like this. But again, task manager of we need to do, I need to try to figure out. Yes. Okay. Because again, that gives us a sense of control and it gives us a plan. When we have a plan or worry does tend to decrease, we're still concerned. Because anxiety comes out of a protection mechanism to a point. Really does. And then it spirals. You know, beyond. And worry again is that protective measure, but it's also, okay, I need to take action. Action versus being captured in this. Think of it like the flight, fight or fawn. Yes. So worry can take you to the fight mode, which is task management, getting a game plan. Right. Anxiety is going to put you in flight or fawn. So you're just like, your brain is going, but you're kind of frozen in the moment. Oh, I thought I was, I love that. I totally resonate that. So people might be like, okay, cool. What does that look like during pregnancy? Well, maybe you are losing sleep over thoughts, scary thoughts. You could be, and I'm not saying that this is not a founded concern because if you've experienced child loss before, it is a valid concern, but you could always be worried about is my baby okay, especially if you cannot feel that baby kick. So you can be obsessive over counting the kicks, the movement. Feeling like you need to have an at home Doppler to keep track of the heart rate. Yeah. Not just like a weekly check-in or calling your doctor frequently for reassurance. Yeah. And then once given reassurance, that's still not enough. Yeah. It's temporary reassurance. Right. Or just like we said, you're noticing your heartbeat, you're difficult to breathing, you're experiencing panic attacks, and you're, or maybe you're obsessing over things now. Like I, everything has to be clean. I have to wipe things constantly. Or maybe we have to do things multiple times to avoid something bad happening. So this could be presenting during pregnancy. And again, with, like we talked about depression, people, it's hard to kind of know it and see it because pregnancy can make you have these symptoms in a way. Yeah. Right. Because people can rationalize that I'm pregnant for the first time. I'm, I hear scary things. I'm afraid of my child. Yeah. Yes. I'm more anxious. Right. There's some justification. Absolutely. And we're not doing anything like tasks to fix it. Correct. We're dwelling in that. Now in pregnancy, that is a little bit harder. So hard. Because there's not a ton that we can do during pregnancy that is task oriented. Right. Now it, let's throw a hypothetical out there. Let's just say a pregnant mama is driving to work and she gets rear-ended. Not a bad accident. I mean, not life-threatening, but she gets rear-ended. So she's naturally concerned. So what she should do is call her OB, say, Hey, I was in a fender bender this morning. I overall feel okay, but I really just need the baby to get checked on. Yeah. Absolutely. That is task management. Right. That gives you an action plan. Your OB needs to know about that anyway. Yes. And they would want you to come in and get checked. Oh yeah. So keep those things in mind too of what is in your control, what is not within your control. Now, if you wake up at two o'clock in the morning, no bleeding, no physical trauma, nothing to make you panic. And all of a sudden you think, I have to go be seen because what if? Well it's one of those. Okay. Are you far enough along to feel the baby kick and you're thinking, well, I haven't felt the baby kick at that point. I always talk to your doctor about this, but I would say eat something with a little bit of sugar or have a little bit of caffeine. See within 30 minutes. If you can get baby to kicking. If not, then absolutely I would go ahead and go on to the hospital kind of thing. But if it's one of those, you wake up and you think, oh, inevitably my baby is gone and we don't have a reason to believe that. That's when I would use our grounding thoughts and say, okay, right now I don't have a reason, a tangible reason to say this is why I could have lost my baby. Right. Now, if I'm still feeling this freaked out about it in the morning, I will call my OB and see if they can just check for a heartbeat. Right. Those kinds of things. One is hard too when you're pregnant because it's like you're growing this baby, but you have such little control. That is the hard part in pregnancy. And it's like in your body, but you have such little control. Now risk factors for anxiety and pregnancy is very similar to when we talk about depression. So realize there's going to be a little bit of a repeat or overlap with some of these. So I mean the same thing, history of mental health, anxiety, panic attacks, trauma, trauma, substance abuse, drugs, exit stress. If you're already a type A or any a gram one person, I always say type A equals type anxiety. Yes. If you've had a history of any type of pregnancy and or child loss, that will. This pregnancy is super high risk. Exactly. Again, if you have a diagnosis of hyper, you know, hyperimnesus, gravita, if you've got a diagnosis of gestational diabetes, if you've had a prior diagnosis of preeclampsia, you're going to be on edge. So keep that in mind. Now the big thing too is anxiety during pregnancy we know is treatable by therapy the same way we talked about with postpartum depression or in pregnancy depression is the earlier we can recognize something's filling off, then we can intervene and we can get that help. Absolutely. You don't want to be stuck in that paralyzing worry. It's miserable. Well, then you're not going to be able to function. You're not. So if you're recognizing it will limit your life, that's something you need to help. And I remember having such anxiety during pregnancy granted because it was a high risk pregnancy. Yeah. I just felt like you said trapped. Paralysed. Paralysed. And I did not know at the time to reach out to therapy. That would be so beneficial to me. Absolutely. Just someone to process this with. So that's why we would encourage you if you don't have a therapist on board, you know, if you're in Alabama kind of reach out to Previa Alliance, see what you can do there, reach out to your insurance company, see who they cover you to go see. See who's in network providers. Exactly. If you feel like you're not super comfortable doing therapy because it does, you know, you do have to be vulnerable to do therapy. Right. Voiced journal. Get those things out. Schedule that worry time. Oh, yes. Plot yourself 10 or 15 minutes as needed to pen and paper journal, voice journal, just process it however you need to process it, but set that alarm on your phone for no more than 15 minutes because then we start to dwell and spiral and all the things. Let it out. But give yourself an opportunity to feel your feels. Yes. Give yourself that opportunity. If you can, I know we're in Alabama, you know, we were 70 degrees earlier this week. Now we're 45. We don't really know what we're doing here with weather. We had tornadoes earlier this week and now we had frosted windshields today. So we don't really know what we're doing, but if the weather is good, go for a walk. Go for a walk, do some, you know, grounding outside. Yes. Go barefoot out on the grass for a little bit. Yes. Deep breaths, learning how to take that deep breath in. Get at the top and let it out. That's right. Harm your body, sleep, prioritize your sleep. As best you can in pregnancy. I know you're in pregnancy and that may look like naps. That may look like less time than you normally. And something we're seeing a lot in previa too is we're getting a lot of spikes of anxiety in the first trimester. Oh, absolutely. And I Harvard actually says that's a thing because our hormone influx and that's when they would expect to see the greatest amount of anxiety. Absolutely. So if you're in that first trimester and you're like, whoa, what the heck? I've never experienced this before. Check in on it. Yeah. Call it what it is. If you want to reach out for support then go for it. Go for it. If you want to say, let me ground myself. Let me do my work. Let me work on my walks. Let me just say this to someone and let's check in in a couple of weeks. Let's use our toolbox tools. Yes. Which we have. Let's use those. So many of those. And then if I feel this way in two weeks, then I'll reach out. And that's fine too. Yes. Because the important thing is that person said, hey, something's up. Something's up. You want you to capture that. You know, it's like a wildfire, right? You want to smell that smoke and find it when it's little. Exactly. You don't want it taken over the whole forest. And so mental health's the same way. So that's why we start in pregnancy. We give you this education. And so again, let's say it again like we said in the Depression. If this is resonating with you, you're not a bad mom. This is not your fault. And there is help. Yep. Absolutely. That's what we're here for. All right, guys. That's right. Returnal mental health is as important as physical health. The Previous 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 Parkhurst, and licensed clinical social worker Whitney Gay, each episode focused on specific issues relevant to pregnancy and postpartum. Join us and hear how other moms have overcome mental health challenges as well as access to 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.
