(Perinatalmeans the weeks before and after giving birth.)
(Her responses have been edited and condensed for clarity.)
SELF: What does your job typically entail?
Adobe Stock / Good Studio / Morgan Johnson
Pooja Lakshmin:The majority of my patients are women who are pregnant and postpartum.
How has your work changed now with telehealth sessions instead of in-person ones?
I still provide psychotherapy, adjust medication doses, and even see new patients through telepsychiatry.
Are you seeing any mental health trends among your patients?
The lack of certainty around whensocial distancingmeasures will end and whenkidswill be back in school is particularly destabilizing.
Do you believe this pivot to telemedicine is creating increased access to mental health care for perinatal women?
The COVID-19 pandemic has required the entire field to dramatically transform pretty quickly.
In many ways, this has improved patients ability to seek services.
Prior to COVID-19, limiting factors for my patients were childcare or work obligations.
Being able to meet via video is so much easier for some moms.
However, there are downsides to these telepsychiatry sessions.
Privacy is more difficult.
How are the unique circumstances ofhaving a baby during a pandemicimpacting pregnant womens mental health?
Will they be able to have a support person in delivery?
If they test positive, will they beseparated from their baby?
For pregnant women especially, it is important to note that grief is completely expected right now.
Whats most helpful isacknowledging themand reflecting in a structured way.
How is the pandemic affecting postpartum womens mental health?
I am seeing a variety of stressors.
One is the constant, low-grade anxiety that comes with having to make decisions with very little information.
Should we register for daycare?
I am also hearing women discuss how to deal with family members who arenot adhering to social distancing guidelines.
Women who were already experiencing postpartum depression or anxiety are certainly at risk for a worsening of symptoms.
What practices and skills are you recommending to your patients to optimize mental health and well-being?
Work on saying no and delegating out the mental load.
Mothers are dealing with the brunt ofinvisible laborright now, and there can be a temptation to martyr yourself.
Instead, delegate responsibilities where you’ve got the option to.
Also, build transition times back in.
Without emotional and physical transitions, time blends together, and you’re able to easily feel disoriented.
Since we dont have the external structure, we have to make it ourselves.
Give yourself 20 minutes a day where youre allowed to worry about whatever you want.
If worries come up outside of your allowed 20 minutes, try not to indulge them.
Write them down and save them for the next days worry time.
This gives me perspective and reminds me that no feeling or thought lasts forever.
Where can pregnant or postpartum people turn for help with their mental health right now?
Stigma about mental health issues in pregnancy or postpartum is real and often limits moms from seeking help.
But social support is very important for perinatal women.
It is important to talk about your struggles to your loved ones.
TheCOVID-19 Maternal Wellbeing Facebook groupis a good place for community and evidence-based information.
How has this pandemic impacted your own mental health?
Are you engaging in any particular activities or practices to achieve mental wellness?
Its certainly been difficult to be cooped up at home for almost two months now!
Im facing the same issues that my patients are in lack of external structure and coping with uncertainty.
Doing telepsychiatry has also blurred the boundaries between home and work.
I have a weekly standing Zoom chat with my close friends thats keeping mefeeling connected.
