Perinatal Trauma Therapy in Milwaukee, WI
Whether you’ve been through a traumatic delivery, a NICU stay, or unexpected medical complications, trauma surrounding pregnancy and birth can linger long after the crisis has passed. What your body and mind went through doesn’t just “go away” because the outcome is stable or time has moved forward.
And yet, that’s often the expectation.
It can be painful to watch other parents move through pregnancy and birth with ease.
It can feel isolating when the people around you don’t fully understand what you endured.
And it can feel nearly impossible to make sense of your experience while also showing up for your baby, your partner, and your life.
We get it, and we can help.
Perinatal trauma is both deeply personal and more common than many people realize. Experiences like emergency interventions, loss of control during labor, medical emergencies, NICU stays, or feeling dismissed or unheard during care can all contribute to trauma responses. These experiences can affect how you think, feel, and relate—to yourself, your baby, your body, and others.
From a clinical perspective, pregnancy and birth-related trauma are significant risk factors for PMADs (Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders). These can include anxiety, depression, panic, obsessive-compulsive symptoms, and even more severe conditions like postpartum psychosis. This is one of the reasons why “baby blues” doesn’t even begin to capture what many people are actually experiencing.
Trauma can show up in ways that might surprise you, including:
intrusive memories or flashbacks
heightened anxiety or constant “on edge” feelings
difficulty sleeping, even when your you have the chance
avoidance of reminders of your pregnancy or birth
feelings of guilt, shame, or a sense that your body “failed” you
difficulty bonding, or pressure to feel a certain way that doesn’t match your reality
None of this means you’re doing anything wrong. It means your nervous system is trying to make sense of something overwhelming and keep you safe.
And you don’t have to navigate that alone.
Our clinicians are highly trained in perinatal mental health and trauma-informed care. We use evidence-based approaches like CBT and EMDR to help your nervous system process what happened so that it doesn’t keep resurfacing. Therapy isn’t about forcing yourself to “move on”; It’s about creating enough safety to gently work through your experience at your own pace.
Whether or not you have a formal PMAD diagnosis, your experience matters. Healing from trauma is not about erasing what happened, it’s about helping it take up less space in your present.
So that you can feel more grounded, more connected, and more like yourself again.
And yes: able to experience joy again, too.
Whether you’re navigating the emotional aftermath of a medically complex pregnancy, a traumatic delivery, a NICU stay, or a birth experience that simply didn’t feel okay, we are here to support you.
We offer therapy for individuals and for parenting partners, and we welcome families of all kinds. Whether your birth experience was just this week or years ago, there is hope that it can feel better than it does right now. There is no judgment here—just thoughtful, skilled care grounded in respect for your experience.
Click the button below to get started. We’ll match you with a therapist who can help you start feeling better.
Postpartum Mental Health Resources
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Postpartum Plan
Download our free postpartum plan. Use these questions to initiate conversations with your co-parent or other supports.
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What to Expect… When You’re Postpartum Blog
Having a new baby comes with a lot of unknowns. Emily offers tips to help weather the uncertainty that comes with a new addition to your family.
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PMADs Questions and Answers
There are a lot of misconceptions about PMADs, so let’s dive in to the most common questions we get about PMADs, some symptoms and risk factors, and where to go to get help:
Postpartum Support International
PSI provides direct support to families, professional training, and a bridge between the two. There are fact sheets about various perinatal mental health disorders, as well as links to state chapters, area providers, and online support groups.
Check out the Wisconsin chapter here.
Moms Mental Health Initiative
MMHI is a fantastic Milwaukee area resource. Their mission is to help moms navigate perinatal mood and anxiety disorders by sharing information, connecting them to resources, and providing peer-driven support. They do also offer a closed online support group. If you’re in the Southeast Wisconsin area and looking for resources - this should be your first stop.
The Periscope Project
The Periscope Project is a free resource for health care providers caring for pregnant and postpartum women who are struggling with mental health or substance use disorders. If your doc isn’t sure about prescribing meds for you or wants to consult with a perinatal specific psychiatrist - this is the place to connect them to.
FAQs About Therapy for Perinatal Trauma
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Perintatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders. It’s basically just an acronym that encompasses ALL of the possible mental health stuff that can come up in trying to conceive, infertility, pregnancy, birth, and postpartum. It includes depression, anxiety, panic, OCD, trauma, bipolar disorder, PTSD, psychosis, and more.
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Symptoms can vary somewhat person to person and appear up to the first year following the birth or additional of a child into your family. Up to 15% of postpartum people experience significant depression.
Some common symptoms include:
Feelings of anger or irritability
Lack of interest in the baby
Appetite and sleep disturbance
Crying and sadness
Feelings of guilt, shame or hopelessness
Loss of interest, joy or pleasure in things you used to enjoy
Possible thoughts of harming the baby or yourself
Information from Postpartum Support International
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Around 6% of pregnant people and 10% of postpartum people experience anxiety. Anxiety diagnoses can include panic and OCD.
Constant worry
Feeling that something bad is going to happen
Racing thoughts
Disturbances of sleep and appetite
Inability to sit still
Physical symptoms like dizziness, hot flashes, and nausea
Information from Postpartum Support International
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Basically, OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) that occurs in the postpartum period.
Some common symptoms include:
Obsessions, also called intrusive thoughts, which are persistent, repetitive thoughts or mental images related to the baby. These thoughts are very upsetting and not something the woman has ever experienced before.
Compulsions, where the mom may do certain things over and over again to reduce her fears and obsessions. This may include things like needing to clean constantly, check things many times, count or reorder things.
A sense of horror about the obsessions
Fear of being left alone with the infant
Hypervigilance in protecting the infant
Moms with postpartum OCD know that their thoughts are bizarre and are very unlikely to ever act on them.
Information from Postpartum Support International
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Several ways. Since you’ve found us, that’s an option. You can schedule a consultation with one of our therapists here.
Postpartum Support International also has coordinators that are able to connect with individuals and families in need and help them find resources. You can call or text the PSI Helpline at 1-800-944-4773 or fill out this form to be contacted by a volunteer. PSI has a whole bunch of helpful resources, including free online support groups.
If you aren’t interested in seeing one of our therapists, you can also search the PSI provider directory for a clinician that fits your needs.
If you are in the Milwaukee area, Moms Mental Health Initiative is also a great resource with a trusted provider list.
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Basically, if you’re here reading about it and wondering if maybe you should…. you probably should.
In general, most people wait longer than necessary before they seek help for any mental health concern. We’re big advocates of early help, but see people from “Hey I think I might struggle when I do try to get pregnant” all the way through “My kid is 12 and I’m not ok”.
It’s never too early, it’s never too late.
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It happens. Asking for help is HARD. Finding a therapist you click with and gets you and what you’re going through is even harder.
But there is help out there. You deserve to feel better. We get that it’s hard to decide to come to therapy, and SUPER hard to actually show up. Even searching for somebody online is a big first step. We’re here to walk you through all the other steps.
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Yep, absolutely. Up to 10% of non birthing partners will have clinically significant mental health symptoms following the birth or addition of a child into their family.
We absolutely work with partners, too!
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Yep. While some providers wouldn’t label that “perinatal”, your story and losses matter. Those losses and the grief that comes with them may include actual pregnancy, embryo, or child losses, but also the loss of the family story or journey that you thought you and your partner would have.
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First off - your story matters, and it is safe to tell your story here.
We have therapists that are supportive and validating of people who have had to terminate a pregnancy, no matter the story or reason behind it.
Emily also has experience and knowledge providing support to people currently making a decision to terminate (either for medical reasons, called TFMR, or otherwise) or awaiting a procedure. If you are in immediate need of support in this area, please reach out to her directly at 414-301-3411 or emily@erawellnesstherapy.com. Please note that our voicemail and email systems are confidential, but you may want to be cautious about the information you leave on either. You may indicate this need for urgency and confidentiality by using the phrase “I am looking for resources for stress management”.
If we need to return your call or email, we will not identify the reason that we are contacting you, just “Emily from ERA Wellness returning your call”.