The Professional Counselor | Volume 14, Issue 3 262 Participants described complexities related to sustaining the physiological routine needs of those in their care quickly after birth. Many participants described the rapid speed at which they returned to caring for their families after giving birth. For example, one participant stated, “We aren’t told to rest. We’re told to . . . have your baby and then keep going with your life.” This rapid transition to caring for their families after birth was described by several participants as a bewildering time. One participant illustrated this perplexing time by sharing, “I don’t know what I need. I don’t even know. My husband says, ‘What do you need from me?’ I don’t really know. I don’t know what I need.” This explanation describes the bewilderment many of the participants expressed. Many participants described an interdependent relationship between meeting their and others’ physiological needs and their individual emotional experiences. For example, one participant stated, “I’m struggling physically, which is making me struggle mentally.” Many of the participants described challenging experiences related to the physical process of birth concerning the safety and livelihood of their child. Also, several participants described the postpartum period as more difficult emotionally. When asked to compare their emotional experiences of childbirth to the postpartum period, one participant answered, “That’s more postpartum, postpartum experience because that was harder for me than the births.” A few participants used words such as “debilitating” and “extreme” to characterize their postpartum emotional experience. One participant stated she “just didn’t understand how everybody else could be so normal around me, and I felt such extreme anxiety and fear.” Another need frequently described by participants was the exploration of their postpartum identity and sense of self. Participants characterized this need as navigating the changes to their selfhood and identity due to their transition to parenthood. One participant candidly stated this need: “Like you’re still a person.” Within the context of parenthood, one participant described a process of “figuring out who you are outside of that [parenthood].” Many participants described challenges in integrating their individuality within their new role as a mother. For example, one participant explained, “It would help me to not just talk about the kids. Of course, your kids are a big chunk of your life, but actually being a person and having adult problems is a big chunk, too.” Explicitly referring to parenthood, one participant remarked, “I get resentful because I still deserve to be treated like a woman and not just like ‘mom and dad.’” Whereas the dimensions above describe the postpartum needs of mothers for physiological routines, emotional processing, and identity exploration, most participants in the study had challenges in accessing these identified needs. These challenges were particularly noted in seeking social and emotional support. Most of the participants within this study described the accessibility they experience related to social support postpartum in affective terms; one of the most prominent affective dimensions identified was shame in seeking postpartum support. For example, one participant described their experience seeking available interpersonal and intrapersonal resources in their community: “There are resources all around me, but it’s like you feel ashamed.” For some of the participants in this study, the experience of shame was associated with a fear of the consequences of being open and authentic with health care providers about their social and emotional experiences. One participant explained this shame and fear, stating: You feel ashamed to say it. At one of my postpartum follow-ups, they’re like, “Oh, you feel like hurting yourself?” And, I’m thinking, “Yes, I want to die, I feel so depressed,” but you say “No” because you’re scared they’re gonna take your child away or they’re gonna call the police, they’re going to hospitalize you.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDU5MTM1