Helping You Manage OCD During Pregnancy and the Postpartum Period
Chicago OCD & Trauma Therapy specializes in treating parents with perinatal and postpartum OCD, postpartum anxiety, and intrusive thoughts during pregnancy and throughout the postpartum period. If you’re searching for a postpartum OCD therapist, this is a space where you can be open, understood, and met with compassion.
Becoming a parent can stir up so many emotions. You may feel love, awe, joy, and protectiveness. You may feel scared, exhausted, grieving parts of your old life, or even numb. Sometimes, those emotions come with thoughts that feel so scary you can't imagine saying them out loud.
Many moms experience intrusive thoughts after having a baby. You may feel ashamed, distraught, or out of control. At times, you may find yourself imagining worst-case or nightmarish scenarios.
When intrusive thoughts and doubts show up, compulsive behaviors like checking or seeking reassurance can feel like the only way to cope.
Postpartum OCD is deeply distressing, but it is treatable, and you don’t have to go through it alone.
You’re Not Alone: Help for Perinatal OCD
You Can Be a Good Parent and Have Intrusive Thoughts
When you're having intrusive thoughts, you may start to believe you're a bad parent. You might worry that you can't bond with your baby or take care of them the way you should.
OCD can make these thoughts and doubts feel real and urgent. They can feel so convincing that you start to question what they mean about you or what you are capable of. Even then, these thoughts are not a reflection of who you are as a parent or a person, or how you truly feel about your baby.
Postpartum OCD can show up in different ways, including:
Avoiding being alone with your baby
Checking on your baby over and over
Disturbing thoughts or images about something bad happening
Asking others again and again for reassurance
Ruminating on and reviewing your day to make sure nothing went wrong
Searching online to try to feel more certain or reassured
You may be afraid to talk about your intrusive thoughts or other OCD symptoms. You might worry that people will see you as a "bad parent."
During therapy for postpartum OCD, there is no judgment. You don't have to hide your thoughts or make them sound less scary.
Support for Perinatal Mental Health in Chicago
Becoming a parent is a physically and emotionally intense experience that can affect your mental health. Perinatal mental health includes everything from pregnancy through the postpartum period.
You may feel:
More anxious than usual during pregnancy
Unsure or overwhelmed about how to be a parent
Unprepared for what’s ahead
Like your body isn't your own
Like your birth experience was traumatic
After your baby is born, you might find yourself checking to make sure they’re still breathing or worrying you might accidentally expose your baby to germs and make them sick.
These thoughts can continue for months. You can love your baby and still feel overwhelmed. On the outside, everything may look fine, but inside, you may feel anxious, unsettled, or stuck.
That’s where perinatal and postpartum OCD therapy can help. By giving you a safe place to talk about these thoughts, understand what’s happening, and learn ways to respond that reduce fear instead of fueling it.
How Therapy Helps Postpartum OCD and Anxiety
When you start treatment for postpartum OCD and anxiety, you'll learn what the OCD cycle is and how it can keep you feeling stuck. You'll also learn new ways to respond to intrusive thoughts and obsessive doubt.
To support you effectively, we may draw from different therapy approaches based on your needs, including:
Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP)
Inference-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (I-CBT)
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Trauma-informed therapy
Somatic support
Each approach offers a different way of understanding and responding to what you’re experiencing. ERP helps you gradually reduce compulsive behaviors like avoidance, checking, and reassurance-seeking. I-CBT helps you recognize how OCD pulls you into imagined doubt and how to shift back to trusting your direct experience and reality. ACT supports you in making choices based on your values, rather than fear.
If you've experienced trauma, such as a difficult birth, pregnancy loss, or earlier attachment wounds, we can incorporate a trauma-informed approach to help you feel more grounded and supported throughout the process.
New Dads Deserve Care, Too
So much of pregnancy and postpartum life centers on the mom and baby. Many new dads forget to take care of themselves.
You may downplay your fears or push through exhaustion without acknowledging how much you’re carrying. If you’re struggling, you don't have to wait for a crisis to ask for help. You do not need to prove that it is “bad enough.”
If intrusive thoughts, checking, avoidance, panic, or anxiety are affecting your ability to rest, bond, function, or feel like yourself, therapy and support can help.
At Chicago OCD & Trauma Therapy, we provide perinatal mental health care for both new moms and dads in Ravenswood, Lincoln Park, and throughout Chicago, as well as in nearby suburbs. We also offer telehealth therapy to clients across Illinois.
Common Questions About Postpartum OCD
-
Postpartum OCD is a type of OCD that begins or becomes more intense after having a baby. Perinatal OCD can also start during pregnancy. You may experience unwanted intrusive thoughts, images, urges, or doubts that feel distressing or hard to control. In response, you may find yourself checking, avoiding certain situations, going over things in your mind, seeking reassurance, or researching to try to prevent something bad from happening.
-
Intrusive thoughts are common for new parents. Many people notice unwanted or upsetting thoughts during pregnancy or after their baby is born. Sometimes, these thoughts can become repetitive and distressing, and may lead you to check, avoid certain situations, or seek reassurance. If this sounds familiar, it could be a sign of postpartum OCD or postpartum anxiety, and support is available.
-
If anxiety, intrusive thoughts, and compulsions are making your day-to-day life more difficult, it may be time to reach out for support. This might look like trouble resting, feeling constantly on edge, second-guessing yourself, or not feeling like yourself. You don’t have to wait until your symptoms feel overwhelming or unbearable to ask for help.
Work With a Postpartum Anxiety Therapist
Many people struggle when they become a parent. You don't have to deal with this transition alone.
If you are searching for a postpartum OCD therapist or postpartum anxiety therapist, Chicago OCD & Trauma Therapy can help. If you have any questions, please fill out the form or click the consultation button below.
Please do not include confidential or sensitive health information in this form. This contact form is not HIPAA-compliant and is intended for general inquiries only.