When you get pregnant, you think of all the happy/scary things about being a mom. I started thinking, what would my baby look like? Would they be a boy or girl? What will I do for the nursery? Will I be able to take care of a baby? All questions I thought were pretty normal. Never in my mind did I think I would have some kind of postpartum issue, but I did.

No one really educated me on the postpartum experience. I had no idea what to expect when I left the hospital after giving birth. I had a relatively complication free birth, but the postpartum care is awful. You literally have to wear diapers for weeks, your hormones are everywhere, and on top of that you get no sleep. No one prepared me for that.

On top of dealing with the terrible postpartum physical symptoms, I developed postpartum OCD unknowingly. My OBGYN never once mentioned to me what to look out for with postpartum symptoms. I just assumed everything I was dealing with was fine. It obviously was not. I never even heard of postpartum OCD. I hadn’t even heard of postpartum anxiety. I only knew about postpartum depression.

What I don’t understand is why are doctors not educating us enough on postpartum education? If I had known what to look out for, I might not have experienced postpartum OCD so severely. It makes me sad that this could have been avoided had I had the proper education on my experiences and symptoms. I worked so hard to prepare for the birth of my baby, but nothing prepared me for the trauma I would go through emotionally. We all need to be educated on postpartum issues, because it can affect anyone. Please reach out if you have symptoms so it doesn’t get as bad as mine did. Let’s raise awareness together!