Reproductive mental health therapy addresses the emotional and psychological impact of reproductive experiences — including infertility, fertility treatment, pregnancy, birth, postpartum, pregnancy loss, neonatal and infant loss, medical trauma, hormonal changes, and breast and gynecologic medical care. These experiences can lead to or worsen anxiety, grief, depression, trauma, and identity shifts, and yet they are often minimized culturally. Reproductive mental health therapy offers specialized care tailored to these experiences.

• Consider specialty telehealth providers that advertise maternal/reproductive mental‑health services (e.g., drjesscoleman.com). Teletherapy widens access across states.

• For individual specialist practices, search clinicians who list reproductive mental health, infertility, pregnancy loss, or PMADs on their sites. Look for PMH‑C mental‑health training on clinician profiles.

• Use Postpartum Support International’s provider directory — PSI maintains a large, searchable list of clinicians with perinatal/reproductive training. (postpartum.net)

• Check major academic fertility and women’s health centers (they commonly list embedded psychologists). Example: UCSF Center for Reproductive Health’s wellness/psychology team (crh.ucsf.edu) and UNC Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program (https://www.med.unc.edu/psych/wmd/patient_care/perinatal/)

Perinatal mood and anxiety disorders (PMADs) are mental health conditions that develop during pregnancy or in the postpartum period. They include postpartum depression, postpartum anxiety, postpartum OCD, among others. PMADs are the most common complication of childbirth — approximately 1 in 5 birthing parents experience them — and they are highly treatable with evidence-based support.

Postpartum anxiety and postpartum OCD can look similar, but they are distinct conditions that respond to different treatments. Postpartum anxiety involves persistent, excessive worry — a constant sense of dread, fear something bad will happen, or physical symptoms like a racing heart or difficulty relaxing. Postpartum OCD involves a specific two-part cycle: intrusive, unwanted thoughts or images (obsessions) that feel deeply at odds with the parent's values, followed by repetitive behaviors or mental rituals done to reduce distress (compulsions) — such as checking, avoiding, or seeking reassurance from others.

The distinction matters because the gold-standard treatment for postpartum OCD is Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), which specifically targets the compulsive cycle rather than worry alone. Importantly, having intrusive thoughts does not mean a parent intends to act on them — research consistently shows that parents with postpartum OCD are no more likely to act on intrusive thoughts than parents without OCD. The distress those thoughts cause is evidence of how strongly the parent's values oppose them.

Birth trauma can occur when a person experiences labor, delivery, or the immediate postpartum as frightening, out of control, violating, or dehumanizing. It can affect birthing parents, non-birthing partners, and support people. Birth trauma is defined by the person's subjective experience, not by how medical providers documented the birth. Some people develop postpartum PTSD following a traumatic birth, which is treatable with evidence-based therapy including Prolonged Exposure (PE) and Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT).

Yes. Partners — including non-birthing parents, non-gestational parents, fathers, and same-sex partners — often experience their own significant emotional responses during infertility, pregnancy, loss, birth, the postpartum period, and early parenthood years that go largely unacknowledged. I enthusiastically welcome partners into my practice, and am passionate about supporting them in improving their mental health.

The Perinatal Mental Health Certification (PMH-C), awarded by Postpartum Support International, is a nationally recognized credential that signals a provider has completed training in perinatal mental health beyond general clinical practice. I hold the PMH-C, and I also completed a Residency in Reproductive Psychology at the UNC Chapel Hill School of Medicine — one of very few programs in the country offering dedicated, expert-level clinical training across the full reproductive lifespan. That residency, which included intensive clinical work in perinatal behavioral health, a perinatal inpatient unit, and a menopause consultation clinic, represents a depth of specialized training that goes well beyond what most certifications or continuing education programs provide. Together, these credentials reflect my commitment to this area of practice.