Guest post byBy Sally Whiting, Blooms The Chemist Pharmacist-Owner & Board Member
Blooms The Chemist Community partner, Gidget Foundation Australia, is a not-for-profit organisation providing programs to support the emotional wellbeing of expectant and new parents, including individual psychological counselling services delivered in person or via telehealth. They raise awareness of perinatal depression and anxiety through education and awareness programs for healthcare practitioners and the community.
Pregnancy and post-partum can be one of the most vulnerable times in a person’s life. Sally Whiting, Blooms The Chemist Pharmacist-Owner and supporter of Gidget Foundation Australia to share her insights on why supporting expectant and new parent’s mental health and wellness is important for the long-term psychological wellbeing of their child.
So, what is Infant Mental Health?
Infant mental health refers to a child’s emotional and social development from birth to age three. This period defines a child’s capacity to regulate emotions, form close and secure relationships, and to explore and learn. Understanding how to nurture infants’ wellbeing is key to helping treat the mental health issues faced by very young children and their families.
In fact, psychologists have found that infants’ earliest relationships help to form their long-term mental health and wellbeing. When relationships are reliably responsive and supportive, they can help protect children from the adverse effects of early life stressors. Gidget Foundation Australia helps expectant and new parents to address the stressors in their own life to help support their infant’s mental and emotional wellbeing.
Below are four new parents can support their own and their infant’s mental health and wellbeing:
Accessing support from organisations such as Gidget Foundation Australia.
If you are an expectant or new parent experiencing, or at risk of, perinatal depression and anxiety, Gidget Foundation Australia recommends speaking with your GP and asking for a referral to the Foundation.
The Foundation also runs a variety of support programs for vulnerable parents. This includes free psychological support through specialist face to face and telehealth counselling services as well as group therapy.
Gidget’s Bunny Book series is also a wonderful resource for new parents. Bunny Bounces Back is the sixth book in the Bunny Books series – a special story written for children. It includes psychological strategies to help new parents step into parenthood happily and powerfully. The book is available exclusively for sale at Blooms The Chemist, with all proceeds donated to the Gidget Foundation Australia.
Embracing self-care.
While self-care looks very different for different people, it’s about making sure your mental, physical, emotional and social needs are being met. It’s about taking care of your whole self and setting aside time to maintain your wellbeing. This includes making sure you are getting adequate sleep (6-8 hours per night), eating nutritious food, exercising regularly, socialising with other adults and also ensuring you get enough ‘quiet time’ to yourself as well.
You should also make sure you are getting your annual checkup from your doctor. This is important because you can spot health problems before they start. Visit your dentist too to make sure there is no tooth decay. However, if you do end up losing a tooth you can get a dental implant at All On 4 to restore your smile.
This doesn’t make you selfish – taking care of yourself will allow you to take better care of your family. As they say, you can’t fill from an empty cup!
Practicing mindfulness.
Mindfulness is a type of meditation in which you focus on being aware of what you’re sensing and feeling in the moment, without interpretation or judgment. Mindfulness has shown to help improve stress, anxiety, pain, depression, insomnia and high blood pressure. Practicing mindfulness can be anything from breathing methods, guided imagery, and other practices to relax the body and mind while helping reduce stress.
This can be difficult to do when you’re feeling anxious or overwhelmed. In those moments, identify the cause of your stress and see what you can do to overcome it, or acknowledge the stresses that are out of your control and try to release your worry around them.
Connect with your network.
One of the best ways for parents to improve their mental health is to talk to people they trust and share how they are feeling. This can often be a good way to see if others may be having similar experiences. Working out time to connect with partners or other loved ones also reinforces the sense you are in it together, which is reassuring to say the least.
If you are a parent that is potentially experiences pre or post-natal depression, consider seeing your local GP, reaching out to family and friends or seek help online. Blooms The Chemist is Australia’s leading community pharmacy network, is a proud partner of Gidget Foundation Australia, and has a range of resources for expectant or new parents. If you do need help, a hub of perinatal resources can be found in many Blooms The Chemist pharmacies, as well as the Bunny Bounces Book, a children’s book with psychological strategies for new and expectant parents to support their mental wellbeing.
