We hear a lot about postnatal depression, but anxiety in motherhood? Not so much. And yet, it's something so many mums face quietly.

In this episode, Dr Renee White opens up about her personal experience with postpartum anxiety. From sleepless nights and constant worry to the moment she realised something wasn’t right, Renee shares how this chapter shaped her journey as a mum and the founder of Fill Your Cup.

She also breaks down the science behind maternal anxiety, what’s going on in your brain and body and offers simple, evidence-informed tools to help you feel calmer and more supported in the chaos of early motherhood.

If you've ever wondered, “Is this normal?” or felt like you're carrying too much, this episode is for you.

You’ll hear about:

• What postpartum anxiety actually looks and feels like, and how it's different from depression
• Renee’s lived experience with anxiety and the ripple effect it had on her family
• What’s happening biologically during postpartum anxiety
• Practical tools to soothe your nervous system
• How to recognise when you need support and where to find it

Links and Resources

📲 Want to chat more about this? Connect with Renee on Instagram: @fillyourcup_

🌐 Learn more about Dr Renee White and explore Fill Your Cup Doula services

🍪 Craving comfort? Try our famous Chocolate + Goji lactation cookies

If this episode brought something up for you, support is available:

• PANDA (Perinatal Anxiety & Depression Australia) — 1300 726 306 or panda.org.au
• Speak with your GP or a perinatal psychologist
• Or reach out to the Fill Your Cup team. We’re here to help.

🎧 If this episode resonated, please subscribe, share or leave a review.

You’re not alone in this. Support is out there, and you deserve to feel calm, capable and held.

Disclaimer: The information on this podcast presented by the Fill Your Cup is not a substitute for independent professional advice.

Nothing contained in this podcast is intended to be used as medical advice and it is not intended to be used to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease, nor should it be used for therapeutic purposes or as a substitute for your own health professional's advice.

[00:00:25] I'm Dr. Renee White, and this is the Science of Motherhood. Hello and welcome to episode 183 of The Science of Motherhood. I am your host, Dr. Renee White, also the founder of Fill Your Cup, which you're gonna talk about a little bit today. There's Australia's first doula village, and today's check-in Tuesday episode is gonna be a bit of a personal one.

[00:01:31] This is going to be a bit of a vulnerable share for me today because I'm going to tell you about my own experience with postpartum anxiety and I guess how it, it kind of, you know, stopped me from expanding my own family and ultimately led me to quit my career as an attorney. And the silver lining was that I created Fill your cup.

[00:02:23] Obviously, there are many resources in the show notes if this episode is triggering to, to you. Um, and so yes, please feel free to access those if you need it. All right, let's dive into today's episode, which I will start from the very beginning. This is my experience and I wanna take you back to, um, you know, 2017 I was a biochemist turned intellectual property, uh, attorney. I had my career sorted. I was organized, I was prepared. And when I got pregnant, I read every single book I had. Um, I kind of had, you know, a birth plan. I thought I was ready. I totally thought I was ready and my running joke is always, you know, I had two batches of spaghetti bolognese in the freezer and thought, I've got this.

[00:03:58] A mother, the sleep deprivation hit me like an absolute freight train, but it wasn't just. About being tired. It was the way my anxious brain started spiraling in the middle of the night. You know, I don't think I'm alone. When I say the fact that like every little sound my daughter made, made like this kind of like catastrophe in my mind, is she breathing?

[00:04:49] And I remember feeling like having lots of kind of out of body experiences. And I thought every new mum felt like they were drowning. Like they couldn't catch a breath, that their heart was racing when their baby was sleeping peacefully. And so. I remember having this conversation with my psychologist at the time, and I remember saying to her, I think I have postnatal depression.

[00:05:39] And really it was, it, it was a lot of matresence, like, you know, the whole remodeling of the brain and all of those feelings. But it was, it was such a life changing experience for me that, you know, when it kind of came time to think about adding to our family. My postpartum experience was so challenging.

[00:06:39] And I have to say that there's a few things around that. The fact that we didn't have friends and family close by, I didn't know what a doula was. I had no concept of that whatsoever. I think I'd heard of a birth doula, but like, I was like, I don't need that. Like, I need someone afterwards. And the, yeah, postpartum doulas were just not even on my radar at that stage.

[00:07:32] You know, caring for your mental health is dissimilar to, you know, tweaking your back at the gym. You would go and see a physio or a remedial massage therapist. You would check in with someone for body work, very similar as you would. For your mental health. You know, if I'm starting to see myself spiral or go into a bit of a kind of dark kind of pattern, then I'll just flick my psychologist an email and say, Hey, I need to check in.

[00:08:39] And retrain as a postpartum doula and fill your cup was born and that that is how it is all kind of eventuated. So that's my personal experience and I wanted to talk to you around the science of understanding maternal anxiety because I think. That's a really important piece. I find once people start talking about the whys, it makes more sense and then we can normalize this experience even more.

[00:09:35] Probably an underestimate because so many women suffer in silence. I can tell you it's actually probably more common than postpartum depression. But you know, we talk about it far, far less with my biochemistry hat on from a biochemical perspective. Your body is essentially going through like a massive hormonal shifts after birth, so your estrogen and progesterone levels plummet dramatically, and we're talking about a more significant hormonal change than menopause, but it happens in a matter of days instead of years. On top of, you know, these hormonal changes, they directly affect your neurotransmitters. So these are kind of like. Uh, you know, the chemical messengers in your brain. So we've got serotonin, which helps regulate mood and anxiety, and that can be significantly impacted.

[00:11:13] Feeding difficulties, all of those things. Now, I did not know that before I delved into pregnancy and postpartum, and so your brain is also in like a hypervigilant state designed to protect your baby. Now, this is an evolutionary kind of mechanism. Your anxiety system is literally designed to keep your offspring alive, but, but sometimes the system kind of goes into overdrive and creates anxiety. That's, I guess, disproportionate to actual threats. I distinctly remember something like this happening where the room that my daughter was in when she was an infant. So this is, you know, post six months, this little skink lizard.

[00:12:49] But I was like, I remember I was just sweating and I like had this completely irrational reaction to this tiny little skin. My husband still talks about it to this day of it being in the room because I perceived it as a threat. I just kept thinking, oh my God, what if it lands in the cot? What if it lands on me?

[00:13:37] So let's talk about what maternal anxiety actually looks like because it's not always that obvious. So I've kind of alluded to a few already. So, physical symptoms may include racing, heart, shortness of breath, nausea, dizziness, muscle tension, trouble sleeping, even when you have the opportunity. When we are looking at emotional and mental symptoms, they can include things like excessive worrying about bubby's health and safety.

[00:14:59] But one thing I have to say that's really important to distinguish is the difference between normal new parent worry and like a clinical anxiety. And look, I'm not a psychologist, but he, here's what I've learned is that it's normal to worry about your baby. That's like your maternal instinct working.

[00:15:50] These are things like unwanted, distressing thoughts that pop into your head, like imagining dropping your bubby or something terrible happening. You know, having these thoughts doesn't make you a bad mum. It doesn't mean you want these things to happen. They're actually very common, but they can be.

[00:17:02] So you wanna breathe in for four counts, hold for seven, exhale for eight, and this activates our parasympathetic nervous system and tells your body it's safe. To relax, you can ground yourself using the 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 technique. I use this one as well a lot, so you want to just pause and you want to name five things you can see.

[00:17:52] So your brain needs fuel. To manage anxiety, so things like protein rich snacks, they can help stabilize your blood sugar. This is actually why we created our lactation cookies with high protein content. You don't want your blood sugar spiking and crashing that can mimic and worsen some anxiety symptoms.

[00:18:38] And then I guess from a holistic perspective, you wanna be looking at your support system, as I already alluded to, like if things aren't feeling great for me, I go in for my quote unquote oil change with my psychologist. And so I just tap back in and, and you know, this is where something like a doula village model comes in.

[00:19:41] So I really think that professional support is crucial. Things like gp, perinatal, psychologist, counselor, you want someone who can specialize in maternal mental health. And also something like cognitive behavioral therapy is incredibly effective for anxiety. So I just wanna say, if you're listening to this and recognizing yourself in my story, I want you to know.

[00:20:37] And you know, sometimes our greatest struggles become our greatest purpose. So I just wanna say your mental health matters, not just for you, but for your family. So taking care of anxiety, it's not selfish. It is absolutely essential, and you cannot pour from an empty cup. And that's exactly why I called fill your cup. Fill your cup, because you know. You've got to be able to show up as the mum that you want to be. So if you are struggling, please reach out, whether it's to your doctor or a mental health professional, or to us at, fill your cup. If you're a bit lost and you don't know who to contact.

[00:21:45] If you loved this episode, please hit the subscribe button and leave a review. If you know someone out there who would also love to listen to this episode, please hit the share button so they can benefit from it as well. You've just listened to another episode of The Science of Motherhood proudly presented by Fill Your Cup, Australia's first doula village. Head to our website I fill your cup.com to learn more about our birth and postpartum doula offerings where every mother we pledge to be the steady hand that guides you back to yourself. Ensuring you feel nurtured, informed, and empowered so you can fully embrace the joy of motherhood with confidence. Until next time, bye.