Hormonal changes, psychological vulnerability, and life stressors interact to prompt anxiety during pregnancy and post-partum (Wenzel, 2011). It has been suggested that subclinical symptoms of anxiety are more prevalent than depression in all stages of pregnancy (Toureche, Ernst, et al., 2011) Inflammatory response late pregnancy and early post- partum (Kendall-Tackett, 2007). Breastfeeding difficulties and baby’s cry have been identified as main stressors early post-partum (Razurel et al., 2011, and Henshaw et al., 2015) Mothers with breastfeeding difficulties: Can be anxious about not being able to breastfeed successfully Are afraid of not being a good mother Have distorted thoughts their breastfeeding situation Have low self-efficacy. High self-efficacy has been positively related to successful breastfeeding (Nichols, et al, 2009) BREASTFEEDING COGNITIVE DISTORTIONS All or nothing: Rigid black and white thinking If my baby does not today, I am not breastfeeding Mental Filtering: Focus is on the negative aspects All my baby does is fuss of a situation Overgeneralizing: Draw general conclusions over My baby nurses all the time, My baby does not a few experiences like the breast Disqualifying the positive: Good things you do are I have not done anything special, mothers are not important or don’t have value supposed to sacrifice for their children Overestimating the Threat: See a threat in a My baby’s latch doesn’t look like the ones on the situation that has no or minimal threat internet; I don’t think he’s latching correctly Catastrophic Thinking: A minor situation is If I don’t pump more milk it will be horrible viewed as terrible, catastrophic Fortune Telling: Predicting the future My pain will go away if” thinking: Always asking if” a very What if my baby does not wet enough diapers? “What “what bad happens Discounting Your Coping Skills: Telling yourself I would not be able to handle the baby nursing so you can’t cope with a situation frequently A STEP STRATEGY FOR HELPING MOTHERS REDUCE THEIR ANXIETY Identify their cognitive distortions: Discuss what are the odds of her thoughts being or becoming real? Develop a plan for the worst case scenario
Hormonal changes, psychological vulnerability, and life stressors interact to prompt anxiety during pregnancy and post-partum (Wenzel, 2011). It has been suggested that subclinical symptoms of anxiety are more prevalent than depression in all stages of pregnancy (Toureche, Ernst, et al., 2011) Inflammatory response late pregnancy and early post- partum (Kendall-Tackett, 2007). Breastfeeding difficulties and baby’s cry have been identified as main stressors early post-partum (Razurel et al., 2011, and Henshaw et al., 2015) Mothers with breastfeeding difficulties: Can be anxious about not being able to breastfeed successfully Are afraid of not being a good mother Have distorted thoughts their breastfeeding situation Have low self-efficacy. High self-efficacy has been positively related to successful breastfeeding (Nichols, et al, 2009) BREASTFEEDING COGNITIVE DISTORTIONS All or nothing: Rigid black and white thinking If my baby does not today, I am not breastfeeding Mental Filtering: Focus is on the negative aspects of a situation All my baby does is fuss Overgeneralizing: Draw general conclusions over a few experiences My baby nurses all the time, My baby does not like the breast Disqualifying the positive: Good things you do are not important or don’t have value I have not done anything special, mothers are supposed to sacrifice for their children Overestimating the Threat: See a threat in a situation that has no or minimal threat My baby’s latch doesn’t look like the ones on the internet; I don’t think he’s latching correctly Catastrophic Thinking: A minor situation is viewed as terrible, catastrophic If I don’t pump more milk it will be horrible Fortune Telling: Predicting the future My pain will go away “What if” thinking: Always asking “what if” a very bad happens What if my baby does not wet enough diapers? Discounting Your Coping Skills: Telling yourself you can’t cope with a situation I would not be able to handle the baby nursing so frequently A STEP STRATEGY FOR HELPING MOTHERS REDUCE THEIR ANXIETY Identify their cognitive distortions: Discuss what are the odds of her thoughts being or becoming real? Develop a plan for the worst case scenario
REDUCING%2BMOTHERS%2BANXIETY+handout+new.docx