Laura Greenwood
Laura Greenwood is an experienced Psychotherapist with a demonstrated history of working in the mental health care industry. She is skilled in supporting people to overcome mental ...
Select an answer to get started
Who are you?
Hi there. Welcome to JAAQ. I am Laura Greenwood. I'm a psychotherapist, maternal mental health coach and founder of Laura Greenwood Therapy. Please feel free to ask me any questions about motherhood, about perinatal mental health and maternal mental health.
Why does becoming a mother feel like the hardest thing in the world?
It is, it's probably one of the most challenging experiences and transformations you will ever go through in your entire life. So it feels like the hardest thing in the world because it is. So know that it feels hard, because it's hard, not because you're doing it wrong, not because you are failing, not because you should have read more books about how to do this. It's hard because it's hard and it will get easier, but sometimes you don't want to hear that. You just want to hear that it's hard and it's okay to find it hard, and you can do this and you're doing your best and that's good enough.
is it normal for someone to feel more anxious about going out after becoming a mother?
Yes, definitely some form of social anxiety is very, very common, and this is because partly your brain has changed to make you more hypervigilant to risks and dangers, which of course creates anxiety. So you've got that going on. But also as well, when you go out, you've now got to consider things that you didn't have to consider before. You've got to consider making sure that you've got everything in your bag that you need, that you need to set off on time, that you need to make sure that you get prepared early, that you need to know where you can park, that's going to allow you to be able to get the baby out of the car seat safely. You've got to think about all of these things you've never had to think about before. So anything new and uncertain is always anxiety provoking as you get used to a new normal, but it does usually lessen with time.