Pregnancy &
The Transition to Parenthood

Pregnancy is often portrayed as a time of pure joy and anticipation — glowing, radiant, uncomplicated. But for many people, it's also a time of profound change, uncertainty, and stress. Your body is changing in ways that can feel unfamiliar, uncomfortable, and outside your control. Your identity is shifting. And alongside the excitement, there is often ambivalence, worry, and a sense of not knowing what comes next.

The concerns that come up during pregnancy are wide-ranging. How will this change my relationship? My friendships? My career? Will I be able to handle the demands of parenthood? For those adding to their family, new questions arise: Will I be able to love another child as much as I love my first? Will I be able to handle it? Will this disrupt what we've already built? These are not signs of being unprepared or ungrateful — they are a normal part of navigating one of life's biggest transitions.

Pregnancy is also a time full of expectations. You may have your own expectations for how you'll feel emotionally during your pregnancy, how gracefully you'll handle the physical changes, how you'll prepare for the baby, how organized you'll be, how you'll perform at work while pregnant. Other people — friends, family, coworkers, strangers on the street — are likely to have their expectations of you too, and they may let you know about them in both appropriate and inappropriate ways.

These expectations can feel heavy and sometimes impossible to meet, and you may feel like you're bound to disappoint someone, including yourself. One thing that often surprises people is feeling disappointed, or like they've let others down, upon learning the sex of the baby. There can be real loss in letting go of what you had imagined and having to adjust expectations. This can be uncomfortable to admit and can bring on significant guilt. But these experiences are more common than people know, and they don't reflect how much you will love your child or what kind of parent you will be.

Women's mental health has been notoriously understudied and underreported, and for a long time it was considered taboo to talk about the difficulties of pregnancy and postpartum. We are finally hearing more about the challenges that women face during the postpartum period, but the conversation about psychological wellbeing during pregnancy is still evolving. Given all of these changes, uncertainties, and the weight of expectations, pregnancy can be a very vulnerable time when we are more susceptible to anxiety and depression. This isn't something to fear — it's something to be aware of, so that you don't mistake a common experience for something being fundamentally wrong with you, or for a sign that you shouldn't be a parent. If you have a history of anxiety, depression, or other mental health concerns, connecting with a therapist during pregnancy — or even before — can be reassuring. Not because you have to, but because having support already in place can make a real difference if things become harder.

Therapy during pregnancy offers a space to process all of this — the physical experience, the identity shifts, the worries, the ambivalence, the expectations and disappointments — and to prepare for what's ahead. Depending on what feels most useful, it can also help you think through how you want to approach parenthood, how to talk to your partner, and how to build the support you'll need.