Every woman deserves an emotionally healthy and rewarding pregnancy
Welcome to this educational resource backed by medical research & inspired by questions from hundreds of my past and current patients. You’ll find helpful info on mood, anxiety, depression, mental illness, hormones, treatments, and resources.
I’ve been honored to contribute to these outstanding institutions:
Join us July 17th, 5pm, for a special live lecture + Q&A
Sleep in Perimenopause
Dr. Glezer, a reproductive psychiatrist and founder of the Women’s Wellness Psychiatry clinic and the educational site Mind Body Pregnancy, and Dr. Bhopal, a sleep physician, will teach you about how to recognize the common symptoms of perimenopause, focusing on one of the most common and impactful issues - sleep disturbance, and will provide detailed discussion on how to address this important challenge. Topics include:
How to recognize if you're in perimenopause
Myths and misconceptions about perimenopause and its treatments
The impact of sleep disturbance, why this happens in perimenopause, and how to treat it
Webinar will feature 45 minutes of lecture and 15 minutes of Q&A. You may learn more about Dr. Glezer and Dr. Bhopal here.
To sign up, please submit your email below.
Postpartum Depression in Dads
Fathers are fifty percent of a couple, supplying half of the genetic material to create a baby, but when we talk about the postpartum period, they receive less than 10% of the attention. This means that as much as postpartum depression is missed or underdiagnosed in women, it is that much more so in men…
Coping With Infertility and its Emotional Toll
Infertility for a couple is a highly stressful life circumstance. It can last months to years, and the chronic stress has mental health repercussions. These consequences – depression and anxiety – are important to recognize because these conditions can impact both ongoing problems with fertility as well as…
PCOS and its Connection to Mood
Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) affects 5% of reproductive aged women and is one of the most common reasons for infertility. It is a condition characterized by symptoms that include physical symptoms of hormonal disruption, ovarian cysts, irregular menstruation, obesity, increased hair growth, impaired glucose function, high blood pressure, and acne. Each of these…
Four Steps to Overcome the Stigma of Infertility
Stigma – a mark of shame or disgrace – comes in today’s world with different circumstances, from bankruptcy to mental illness to infertility. Infertility affects 6 million Americans (and about 8-9% of couples worldwide), and yet many women feel quite alone when trying to emotionally cope with involuntary childlessness. While the number of treatment options and assisted reproductive technologies have been…
Breastfeeding: When Breast May Not Be Best
Breastfeeding your baby – an action so natural, yet not so easy. Many women struggle in the postpartum period with breastfeeding, whether it is your first baby or your third. There is often pressure to breastfeed because we hear so much about how it is the best option for a baby. I have seen many women develop significant anxiety about…
Treatment Options for Insomnia in Pregnancy
Sleep in pregnancy can be a challenge and poor sleep leads to various emotional and physical consequences. Before seeking treatment for sleep, it is important to evaluate the potential reasons why you might be having difficulty with sleep, whether it is…
Perinatal Depression? Massage Can Help
We have previously discussed the importance of treating depression during pregnancy, given the potential consequences on the developing infant and the delivery. This article focuses on one specific type of treatment – massage – as a means of managing the symptoms of depression. Massage as a form of treatment can be quite varied, and includes…
Sleep Disturbance in Pregnancy
In pregnancy, sleep can be significantly altered. You might find yourself waking up too early, or too many times. You might find it hard to fall asleep, with thoughts racing. You might feel physically uncomfortable. And you might wake up not feeling refreshed. In fact, more than three quarters of pregnant women report a change or disturbance in their sleep pattern. It is very important to understand…
Guide to Depression during Pregnancy
Many of my patients are surprised to hear how common it is to experience depression during pregnancy. Perhaps this is because pregnancy in today’s society is often viewed as almost a magical time for a woman, full of glowing happiness. However, for many women, this is not the case. Depression during pregnancy…
Anxiety Disorder vs. Stress During Pregnancy
Anxiety is a broad term, which in the general population is often synonymous with worry and stress. In this article, we will separate out two situations: When a woman is feeling stress during pregnancy and having general worries and when a woman is struggling with an anxiety disorder. Pregnancy is an anxiety-provoking time whether you are a new mom or having your third child. Many women ask me…
Baby Blues or Beyond? Recognizing Postpartum Depression
The majority of women, more than three-quarters, experience the baby blues immediately after childbirth. It is a feeling precipitated by the sudden change in hormones after delivery, coupled with sleep deprivation and fatigue. You might feel more tearful, overwhelmed, and emotionally fragile. Generally, this will start within the first couple of days after delivery, peak around one week, and taper off by…
When to Return to Work? Maternity Leave and Mental Health
Maternity leave is an invaluable period of bonding time for a new mom and her baby and a time of recuperation after delivery. But how long does it need to be? Patients and practitioners alike ask me about when the right time is to return to work from maternity leave. Does mental health suffer when a woman goes back too soon? Can postpartum depression worsen or…
How to Move Forward After a Traumatic Birth Experience
When women think about childbirth, they often have many different hopes and plans. What happens when those dreams of a beautiful experience do not go as planned? What if, in fact, the experience was psychologically traumatic? If childbirth was a traumatic experience for you, you might remember feelings of fear, anxiety, pain, helplessness, and a loss of…
Panic Attack During Pregnancy
If you have experienced a panic attack during pregnancy, you remember the sensation – shortness of breath, tightness in the chest, racing thoughts, and feeling like you might be having a heart attack or something is terribly wrong. It involves the activation of the sympathetic nervous system, the one responsible for our…
Intrusive Thoughts and OCD Postpartum
Intrusive thoughts postpartum are scary. I have had several patients describe their fears to me – fears that they might do something to harm their baby because these intrusive thoughts pop into their minds. The thought of dropping the baby, the thought of throwing the baby down the stairs or…
Pregnancy Hormones’ Impact on Emotional Health
Pregnancy is a time when your hormones change drastically. These hormones are the reason you feel the way you do, both physically and emotionally, and are what allows a pregnancy to make it to term and promote a healthy mother-baby relationship afterwards. It is valuable to know about each of the hormones involved because they can have an effect on…
Nausea and Vomiting During Pregnancy
For many women, some nausea and vomiting, particularly in the early part of pregnancy, seems inevitable. For some, however, the condition becomes severe enough to compromise well-being and impact quality of life and mood. Severe nausea and vomiting of pregnancy (NVP) can impair a woman’s ability to function at work and at home, and can even have negative effects on the baby, such as…
The Pregnancy Brain Myth
The way a woman’s mind works changes during pregnancy. Many women say they experience baby brain or pregnancy brain, referring to feeling less confident with their thinking, attention, and memory. But is this a real phenomenon? Many have attempted to answer the question of how a woman’s cognitive abilities changes during pregnancy, with very mixed results. Some studies show…
Dr. Glezer began her training at Harvard and then transitioned to the University of California, San Francisco, where she has been a practicing physician, teacher, mentor, and is an associate professor. She is board certified in adult and forensic psychiatry, a member of the American Psychiatric Association, and the immediate past President of the Northern California Psychiatric Society.
She has worked with hundreds of women going through the emotional challenges of conception, pregnancy, loss, and postpartum. She has been interviewed for, and her written work has appeared on multiple leading sites, including Huffington Post, Fit Pregnancy, Health Line, Help Guide, and more.
She began her private practice to help women throughout the Bay Area access reproductive mental health services and is really passionate about helping as many women as possible.
