Understanding Your Moods When You’re Expecting

Lucy Puryear is a practicing psychiatrist and a pioneering expert in women’s emotional health before, during, and after pregnancy. Through engaging personal stories reflecting her own practice, she illuminates the little-discussed feelings that are virtually universal for pregnant women. She shows just how normal it is to fear loss of control, to mourn what you assume is an irretrievable career, or to worry that you’ll be the world’s worst mother. She explains exactly what is happening to your hormonal system — and why knowledge is power when it comes to the overwhelming hormonal floods that accompany pregnancy and the postpartum period.

Understanding Your Moods When You’re Expecting includes reassuring expert advice on:
how to make a birthing plan for emotional well-being
how and why to get essential rest
real-life bonding with your baby
reducing the risk of postpartum depression
eating disorders and OCD
how to make decisions about necessary medications during pregnancy
how to deal with normal fears
This book is as essential to a woman’s emotional health during pregnancy as What to Expect When You’re Expecting is to her physical health.

Lucy Puryear is a practicing psychiatrist specializing in women’s reproductive mental health. She has been director of the Baylor Psychiatry Clinic, Baylor College of Medicine, and was an expert witness for the defense in the trial of Andrea Yates. She is the mother of four and lives in Houston, Texas. For more information, please visit: www.lucyperyear.com.