Pregnancy and parenthood

Support Toolkit

Pregnancy and parenthood

“I felt like it was expected in the wider community that I should be handling all these things...it just sort of crept up on me and I couldn't see why I had any reason to be depressed.” Amanda in the Holding on to Hope podcast.

Woman with young baby – Pregnancy - parenthood

Support for new parents

Becoming a parent and caring for a child can be one of the most wonderful, yet challenging experiences in life. These challenges can be exciting, rewarding, daunting and overwhelming and can happen throughout the parenting journey from conception, pregnancy and birth through to raising a child.

Signs that you or someone you care about may need support
It is important to remember that there are things we can do to get through tough times and we don’t have to go through it alone. Difficult times can be easier to manage with the right help and support.

Signs can include:
- Physical symptoms such as headaches, muscle aches and tension, weight loss or gain
- Feeling angry
- Increased nervousness, agitation, restlessness or fidgeting
- Changes to behaviour such as Increased use of alcohol, drugs or increased gambling
- Feeling helpless or out of control
- Losing interest in activities that you usually enjoy
- Feeling hopeless, guilty or like a ‘failure’ or burden to others
- Thoughts of harming yourself or others
- Thoughts of suicide
If you, or someone you care for is in need of support, please call Lifeline to speak to a trained Crisis Supporter on 13 11 14 (24 hours / 7 days) or text Lifeline on 0477 13 11 14 (24 hours / 7 days) or chat online (24 hours / 7 days).

We are here to listen.

Support services

Support for parents

Panda

PANDA supports women, men and families across Australia affected by anxiety and depression during pregnancy and in the first year of parenthood. PANDA operates a national helpline for individuals and their families to help them recover from perinatal anxiety and depression.

1300 726 306

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Support for parents

COPE (Centre of Perinatal Excellence)

Centre of Perinatal Excellence (COPE) is a not-for-profit organisation devoted to reducing the impacts of emotional and mental health problems in the pre and postnatal periods.

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Support for parents

Gidget Foundation

The Gidget Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to support the emotional wellbeing of expectant and new parents and ensure they receive timely, appropriate and specialist care.

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Support for parents

Raising Children

Raising Children provides free, reliable and up-to-date information for parents with children of all ages to help families grow and thrive together.

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Amanda's Story

At 23, artist Amanda Johnson had life all mapped out. She was married, owned her own ceramic shop and was teaching 200 students a week, firing her three kilns seven days a week and employing seven other staff. She was a successful businesswoman and artist.

She approached having children with the same confident expectation of success but instead, fell into a quagmire of self-doubt and depression. She couldn’t even paint any more. She had a supportive husband and parents and healthy children but admits at one point standing in the garden, watching them through the glass windows inside and seriously thinking they wouldn’t miss her if she left them.

Today, Amanda has become a conduit for others to open up about their depression – helped largely by a massive self-portrait which hangs in her new gallery and shows her old depressed self and her current happy one. However, she points out that depression is like dieting, you can’t just fight it for a while then presume it will stay away forever. You have to learn to manage it.

Listen now