Losing sleep after a baby arrives is treated as part of the deal, and that expectation can hide a risk factor, a symptom and part of treatment.

In this episode, Rebecca walks through four ways to think about sleep across the perinatal period. She covers why "sleep when the baby sleeps" doesn't give parents the unbroken stretches of sleep they need, the questions she asks when a client says they're not sleeping, and practical steps like sleep logs and building a supported sleep plan, ideally during pregnancy.

Try asking about sleep at your next client session, and keep asking, because it changes.

Subscribe so you don't miss the next piece of the puzzle, and share this episode with someone in a client's village.

Links & resources mentioned

* Sleep tips tool: https://perinatalmentalhealthinstitute.com/sleep-tips-350152

* PMHI website: https://perinatalmentalhealthinstitute.com/

Disclaimer: Perinatal in Practice is intended for professional education purposes only. It does not constitute clinical advice or supervision, and does not replace your own professional judgment or your organisation's protocols.

🎵 Theme music: Hopeful Horizons by Justin Lee

And when you’re ready to transform your Perinatal Practice with evidence-based Training & Community:

🟢 Join the PMHI Community Hub: https://perinatalmentalhealthinstitute.com/communityhub

If you or your clients are looking for specialised mental health counselling in the journey to parenthood check out our team at Mindful Roots Counselling here: https://mindfulrootscounselling.com/

Every parent goes through matrescence. Around one in five also experiences a perinatal mood and anxiety disorder. Telling the two apart, and knowing what to say when a parent tells you they no longer know who they are, is what this conversation is about.

In this episode, Rebecca walks through matrescence with her guest, covering how the identity shift after birth mirrors adolescence, what changes in the brain and nervous system in pregnancy and postpartum, and how "ghosts in the nursery" can bring a parent's own history to the surface.

They talk about how to separate the clunky but normal parts of matrescence from the signs of a PMAD, how a NICU stay, loss or birth trauma changes the picture, and which responses help or shut a conversation down, whether you are a midwife, doula, GP, health visitor, lactation consultant or therapist.

Rebecca's guest is Maya McDaniel Bailey, MA, LPC, PMH-C, a licensed therapist, educator and creative based in Birmingham, Alabama. She owns From Rain to Rainbow Counseling and Consulting, where she runs continuing education trainings, consultation groups and treatment groups for clinicians and caretaking professionals, and her doctoral research at the University of Alabama focuses on trauma-informed systems change and maternal health disparities.

Her own postpartum experience led her into perinatal mental health advocacy, and she previews the self-compassion and DBT-informed activity from her upcoming PMHI training.

You will find the link to Maya's training below. Subscribe so you don't miss the next episode, and share this one with someone in a client's village.

Links & resources mentioned

* Maya's PMHI training, “The Sun will Rise and we will Start again: Building through Matrescence”: https://learn.perinatalmentalhealthinstitute.com/2610baileyregistration

* Maya McDaniel Bailey: https://monthlysparkle.net/portfolio

* Maya on social: @maya_rain2rainbow

* PMHI website: https://perinatalmentalhealthinstitute.com/

Disclaimer: Perinatal in Practice is intended for professional education purposes only. It does not constitute clinical advice or supervision, and does not replace your own professional judgment or your organisation's protocols.

🎵 Theme music: Hopeful Horizons by Justin Lee

And when you’re ready to transform your Perinatal Practice with evidence-based Training & Community:

🟢 Join the PMHI Community Hub: https://perinatalmentalhealthinstitute.com/communityhub

A parent who is exhausted, flat and snapping at her children could be experiencing perinatal depression. She could also be experiencing something that is much easier to miss.

In this episode, Rebecca looks at two presentations in perinatal mental health that can sit side by side in a session and call for very different support: perinatal depression and parental burnout.

She explains why telling them apart matters for the parents you work with, and what perinatal providers can start listening for when a client says she feels like she is drowning.

If you support parents through pregnancy and the postpartum period, this is one to bring into your next appointment.

To go further on parental burnout, Rebecca shares a training in the links below.

Subscribe so you don't miss the next piece of the puzzle, and share this episode with someone who is also part of a client's village.

Links & resources mentioned

* Parental burnout training: https://perinatalmentalhealthinstitute.com/product-details/product/w-parental-burnout-reddin

* PMHI website: https://perinatalmentalhealthinstitute.com/

Disclaimer: Perinatal in Practice is intended for professional education purposes only. It does not constitute clinical advice or supervision, and does not replace your own professional judgment or your organisation's protocols.

🎵 Theme music: Hopeful Horizons by Justin Lee

And when you’re ready to transform your Perinatal Practice with evidence-based Training & Community:

🟢 Join the PMHI Community Hub: https://perinatalmentalhealthinstitute.com/communityhub

Most conversations about perinatal grief focus on the loss of a pregnancy or a baby. There is another kind of grief running through the transition to parenthood, and parents rarely hear that it is normal.

In this episode, Rebecca walks through the ambiguous grief that shows up at every stage of becoming a parent, from conception and pregnancy through birth and the postpartum period.

Think of a client who has told you she is happy with her baby and still feels heavy or sad, and consider whether naming it as grief might open the conversation.

Subscribe so you don't miss the next piece of the puzzle, and share this episode with someone who is part of a client's village.

Links & resources mentioned

* Training with Maya Bailey on supporting clients through identity shifts in matrescence: https://learn.perinatalmentalhealthinstitute.com/2610baileyregistration

* Navigating Perinatal Grief & Loss: https://learn.perinatalmentalhealthinstitute.com/grief-course

* Insights Into Navigating Perinatal Grief and Loss: https://perinatalmentalhealthinstitute.com/product-details/product/6796079069a6dc936e5ae00c

* PMHI website: https://perinatalmentalhealthinstitute.com/

Disclaimer: Perinatal in Practice is intended for professional education purposes only. It does not constitute clinical advice or supervision, and does not replace your own professional judgment or your organisation's protocols.

🎵 Theme music: Hopeful Horizons by Justin Lee

And when you’re ready to transform your Perinatal Practice with evidence-based Training & Community:

🟢 Join the PMHI Community Hub: https://perinatalmentalhealthinstitute.com/communityhub

How a new parent looks when they walk into your room tells you very little about how they're coping. Screening is how you find out, and any professional working in the perinatal period can do it.

In this episode, Rebecca walks through why a client's appearance is a poor guide to how a new parent is coping, and why the pressure to look put together makes it harder for mothers to say they are struggling. She covers the difference between screening and diagnosis, why handing over a form before any rapport exists tends to under-report symptoms, and how to build trust and normalise the experience before you introduce a screening tool. She also explains what to say when someone screens high, and what to say when they don't, so every client leaves with resources they can return to.

Before your next appointment, think about how you introduce screening, and start with the free PMADs training linked below if you haven't screened before.

If you found this useful, subscribe so you don't miss the next piece of the puzzle, and share it with someone who is part of a client's village.

Links & resources mentioned

Free PMADS training (symptoms, signs and screening for perinatal mood and anxiety disorders): https://learn.perinatalmentalhealthinstitute.com/free-pmads-training

PMHI website: https://perinatalmentalhealthinstitute.com/

Disclaimer: Perinatal in Practice is intended for professional education purposes only. It does not constitute clinical advice or supervision, and does not replace your own professional judgment or your organisation's protocols.

🎵 Theme music: Hopeful Horizons by Justin Lee

And when you’re ready to transform your Perinatal Practice with evidence-based Training & Community:

🟢 Join the PMHI Community Hub: https://perinatalmentalhealthinstitute.com/communityhub

Perinatal mental health is getting more attention, but general mental health training doesn't prepare you to spot what makes perinatal mood and anxiety disorders different. What gets missed in that gap can be serious.

In this episode, Rebecca is joined by perinatal psychotherapist Gaby Beaujeu for the show's first guest conversation, exploring what perinatal mental health actually covers and why specialisation matters. They talk through how far the perinatal window really stretches, from fertility and pregnancy to years after birth, why intrusive thoughts and anxiety look different in the postpartum period, and how the quality of our questions, including how we ask about suicidal thoughts, shapes what a client feels safe to share. Gaby also shares her own lived experience of postpartum psychosis, what excellent care looked like for her family, and why partners are so often left out of the picture.

Gaby Beaujeu is a perinatal psychotherapist at Mindful Roots Counseling, a Gottman-certified couples therapist, and part of PMHI's clinical training team, where she is also community coordinator.

If you're newer to perinatal work, the free PMADs training below is a good place to start.

Subscribe so you don't miss the next episode, and share this one with someone in a client's village.

Links & resources mentioned

Free PMADs Training: https://learn.perinatalmentalhealthinstitute.com/free-pmads-training

Mindful Roots Counseling: https://mindfulrootscounselling.com/

PMHI website: https://perinatalmentalhealthinstitute.com/

Disclaimer: Perinatal in Practice is intended for professional education purposes only. It does not constitute clinical advice or supervision, and does not replace your own professional judgment or your organisation's protocols.

🎵 Theme music: Hopeful Horizons by Justin Lee

And when you’re ready to transform your Perinatal Practice with evidence-based Training & Community:

🟢 Join the PMHI Community Hub: https://perinatalmentalhealthinstitute.com/communityhub

Almost every parent worries. Perinatal anxiety is something different, and knowing how to tell the two apart changes what you do next.

In the first episode of Perinatal in Practice, Rebecca lays out how to distinguish the normal uptick in worry that comes with pregnancy and new parenthood from a perinatal anxiety disorder. She explains why anxiety naturally increases during this period, from an evolutionary and neurological standpoint, and walks through three practical questions professionals can use with clients: is the worry proportional to the situation, what's the impact across physical, cognitive, behavioural and emotional areas, and does it respond to reassurance. It's a framework for telling when someone needs normalising and information, and when they need more targeted support.

Links & resources mentioned

• Introduction to Perinatal Mental Health: https://www.perinatalmentalhealthinstitute.com/intro-course-information
• Beyond Normal Worry: Recognizing and Supporting Health Anxiety in the Perinatal Period: https://perinatalmentalhealthinstitute.com/product-details/product/w-health-anxiety-flynn
• Aren't Mums Meant to Worry? Understanding Perinatal OCD: https://perinatalmentalhealthinstitute.com/product-details/product/w-ocd-reddin

Disclaimer: Perinatal in Practice is intended for professional education purposes only. It does not constitute clinical advice or supervision, and does not replace your own professional judgment or your organisation's protocols.

🎵 Theme music: Hopeful Horizons by Justin Lee

And when you’re ready to transform your Perinatal Practice with evidence-based Training & Community:

🟢 Take the FREE FREE PMADS TRAINING - Symptoms and Screening for Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders: https://learn.perinatalmentalhealthinstitute.com/free-pmads-training

🟢 Join the PMHI Community Hub: https://perinatalmentalhealthinstitute.com/communityhub

Postpartum psychosis is having a moment in the media, and most of what gets said about it is wrong on the two points that matter most: how rare it actually is, and what it has to do with how someone feels about becoming a mother. Neither is what you'd think.

In this episode, Rebecca gives a clearer, more accurate picture of postpartum psychosis: why "rare" is the wrong word for something that affects one to two in every thousand births, why it's a physiological complication of pregnancy rather than a reflection of someone's mental state or fitness as a mother, and what it actually sounds and looks like in the room. She walks through the early indicators that often get missed, the inability or lack of need for sleep, shifting mood, that unsettling sense from family that "something's not quite right", alongside the core symptoms of delusions and hallucinations, and what a client or their family member might actually say to you. She also covers what to do the moment you suspect psychosis is on board: this is a psychiatric emergency, not a follow-up appointment.

Rebecca references the postpartum psychosis discussion tool from Postpartum Support International as a starting point for the questions to ask a client or family member you're concerned about. Use it as your next check when something doesn't feel right. If this episode gave you something useful, subscribe so you don't miss the next piece of the puzzle, and share it with someone else who's part of a client's village.

Links & resources mentioned
Postpartum Psychosis Discussion Tool (Postpartum Support International): https://postpartum.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/PPP-Discussion-Tool_PSI_4.2025.pdf

PMHI website: https://perinatalmentalhealthinstitute.com/

Perinatal OCD Versus Postpartum Psychosis: Recognition, Risk, and Response (Expert Training with Gaby Beaujeu, PMH-C Certified Psychotherapist): https://perinatalmentalhealthinstitute.com/product-details/product/w-ocd-beaujeu

Disclaimer: Perinatal in Practice is intended for professional education purposes only. It does not constitute clinical advice or supervision, and does not replace your own professional judgment or your organisation's protocols.

🎵 Theme music: Hopeful Horizons by Justin Lee


And when you’re ready to transform your Perinatal Practice with evidence-based Training & Community:
🟢 Take the FREE FREE PMADS TRAINING - Symptoms and Screening for Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders: https://learn.perinatalmentalhealthinstitute.com/free-pmads-training
🟢 Join the PMHI Community Hub: https://perinatalmentalhealthinstitute.com/communityhub