When a woman opens her life to receive a child she enters a new time in her life during which and her emotions and her own body are suddenly out of her control. New eating habits can put on pregnancy pounds and then some. Once the baby is born, many new mothers are disturbed by the look of their post-pregnancy body.

Whether a woman is alone or sharing her experience with a spouse or partner, and whether she already has children or not, a new mother is creating a new family constellation that has never been before. With this opening a new landscape forms. First time mothers are in uncharted territory. As a social, relational, physical and psycho-spiritual experience, the transition to motherhood has the power to provoke the depths of her identity and her soul.

In opening herself to the whole experience of motherhood, there are many new feelings associated with the obvious excitement, sharing her news, organizing a nursery and generally getting ready for the main event. It can be a bewildering time for a new mother who is confronted with ambivalent feelings, fear, grief, even a sense of loss or mourning. It can be an anxious time and psychotherapy can help.

There are many issues a new mother may want to discuss in therapy, such as her changing body, mood changes, fears and expectations. Another issue therapy can help with is the changes taking place in her familiar life. Friends and family members unexpectedly draw near or, more painfully, pull away from this oncoming event in her life. Rhythms she was accustomed to in her intimate life with a spouse or partner shift in wonderful and sometimes frightening ways. Things are not the same.

The transition to motherhood is a valuable time to seek support from therapy. Motherhood brings new events, such as lack of sleep, the experience of breast-feeding, leaving the child with a baby-sitter for the first time, resuming an intimate life, coping with the competing needs of other children, potential postpartum depressions and changing hormones, partner and marital tensions, considering whether or not to go back to work, and finding childcare.