Maternal Mental Health · For new & expecting parents
If you're struggling during pregnancy or after your baby arrives, you're not alone, and you're not failing.
Becoming a parent is one of life's biggest transitions: joyful, exhausting, and sometimes overwhelming. Perinatal mood and anxiety concerns are common and treatable, and support can help you feel like yourself again.
What it looks like
What brings people in
Perinatal mood and anxiety concerns can show up in many ways, often as some mix of the following.
- Persistent sadness that won't lift
- Anxiety or intrusive, unwanted thoughts
- Irritability or feeling constantly on edge
- Guilt, or feeling like you're not enough
- Trouble bonding with your baby
- Feeling like yourself has disappeared
A warm, judgment-free space for this season
Our clinicians offer a warm, judgment-free space and evidence-based support tailored to the perinatal period, for expecting parents, new parents, and those navigating loss or fertility challenges. What you're feeling is not a reflection of how much you love your child.
When medication questions arise, our prescribers can weigh in with perinatal considerations in mind. Partners feel this transition too, so we can include partners and support the family system as a whole.
For new and expecting parents, throughout pregnancy and the postpartum period.
Our approach
How maternal mental health support works at LodeStone
A whole-picture, coordinated path, not a one-size-fits-all plan.
Start without judgment
We begin by understanding what you're carrying, in a space where nothing you feel is too much or off-limits to say.
Build support that fits
Evidence-based care tailored to the perinatal period, whether you're expecting, newly postpartum, or navigating loss or fertility challenges.
Coordinate the care
When medication questions arise, our prescribers weigh in with perinatal considerations, and we can include partners and the wider family.
Not sure where to start? Get answers and we will match you with the right clinician.
We provide this care in person at our Hinsdale and Woodstock offices, and by telehealth across Illinois. We are in-network with BCBS PPO, Blue Choice, Aetna, Medicare, and United Behavioral Health, and we verify your benefits before your first visit.
A closer look
Beyond the baby blues: understanding perinatal mood and anxiety
Mood and anxiety struggles are among the most common complications of pregnancy and childbirth, far more common than most people realize, because so few parents say the hard parts out loud. They are driven by a real collision of biology, sleep loss, identity change, and pressure to feel only joy. None of it means you love your baby any less.
Baby blues, or something more
The baby blues, tearfulness and mood swings in the first two weeks after birth, are so common they're nearly universal, and they fade on their own. When the sadness, anxiety, rage, or numbness persists past those weeks, intensifies, or starts interfering with sleep, bonding, or daily life, that's a perinatal mood or anxiety concern, and it responds to treatment. Scary, intrusive thoughts that horrify you are a common symptom of postpartum anxiety and OCD; being horrified by them is itself the sign they aren't your intentions.
It isn't only mothers, and it isn't only after birth
Struggles can begin during pregnancy, after a loss, through fertility treatment, or following a difficult birth. Partners can develop postpartum depression and anxiety too. We support the whole constellation: expecting parents, new parents, partners, and families finding their footing in a season that asks everything of them.
Your first steps
What to expect when you start
You're running on no sleep with a body and a schedule that aren't your own. The first steps are built for exactly that.
Before your first visit
Start with the get-answers form, even at 3 a.m. between feedings. We'll match you with a clinician experienced in perinatal care and verify your insurance benefits before your first visit.
Your first session
A judgment-free conversation about what this season has actually been like, including the parts that feel unsayable. Nothing you're feeling will shock your clinician, and nothing has to be shared before you're ready.
Care that fits the season
Telehealth from home works beautifully for this stage of life, no packing the car required. Sessions flex around feedings and naps, and when medication questions arise, our prescribers weigh in with perinatal considerations in mind.
Good to know
Perinatal mental health: frequently asked questions
Is this postpartum depression, or am I just exhausted?+
Exhaustion is universal; despair is not. If the low mood, dread, rage, or numbness persists beyond the first couple of weeks, doesn't ease when you do get rest, or is interfering with how you hoped to experience your baby, it's worth a conversation. You don't need to be certain to reach out; sorting that out is our job, not yours.
I'm having scary, intrusive thoughts. What's wrong with me?+
Unwanted, horrifying thoughts about harm coming to the baby are one of the most common and least talked-about symptoms of postpartum anxiety and OCD. Being distressed by them is the telling sign they are symptoms, not intentions, and they respond well to treatment. This is exactly the thing to say out loud to a clinician who has heard it many times.
Can I start during pregnancy?+
Yes, and it's one of the best times to start. Anxiety and depression during pregnancy are common, and building support before the baby arrives means you won't be starting from scratch during the hardest weeks.
What about medication while pregnant or nursing?+
That decision deserves perinatal-specific expertise, weighed together with you and your medical providers. Our prescribers approach it with those considerations in mind and coordinate directly with your therapist, so nothing falls between providers.
Is this covered by insurance?+
We are in-network with BCBS PPO, Blue Choice, Aetna, Medicare, and United Behavioral Health, and we verify your benefits before your first visit so you know exactly what to expect.
Do partners and fathers struggle too?+
Yes, and their struggles are real and treatable, not a footnote. Partners can develop postpartum depression and anxiety themselves, and the transition strains even strong relationships. We see partners individually and together, including couples work for this season.