I've got what I always wanted - so why am I feeling like this?

Having a baby is a major experience in our lives and can elicit a range of feelings in expectant and new parents. Often the emotions that are felt at this time can feel extreme and overwhelming, even the good ones! 

Sometimes, a parent/s can feel a range of worries or negative feelings and these can predominate or feel unsettling. This can be particularly bewildering when the baby is planned and much wanted.  Sometimes new parents have a sense of the route of their difficulties or understand that previous relationship problems may be reactivated at this time but are unsure of how to change this. 

It is important to receive early support because for parents and their babies this is a special time for their developing relationship and for baby’s growth and development. Parents can benefit from a listening, caring and ‘neutral mind’ to help them explore where these feelings come from, and to address them. Parent Infant Psychotherapy can promote space in the minds of parents, to allow for more helpful patterns of relating and the formation of closer bonds with their unborn or new baby. 

My work with expectant mothers and fathers or new parents provides time for reflecting on what it means for them to be a parent of this new baby in ways that can support a more helpful and rewarding relationship between parents and their baby. I offer a safe, non-judgemental and confidential space to help parents and their babies to process and understand their feelings and their emergent relationship. 

Francesca Rutherford 

To find out more about me and Parent Infant Psychotherapy visit my website www.francescarutherford.co.uk 

I will be offering PIP at The Open Door in Lewes from January 2020