DR. RODRIGUEZ-SIUTS
  • Home
  • About
  • Services
    • Prenatal and Postpartum Therapy
    • Reproductive Mental Health Therapy
    • General Maternal Mental Health
  • Patient Info
    • Patient Forms
    • Rates & Insurance
    • FAQ
    • Useful Therapeutic Apps
    • Patient Portal
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Home
  • About
  • Services
    • Prenatal and Postpartum Therapy
    • Reproductive Mental Health Therapy
    • General Maternal Mental Health
  • Patient Info
    • Patient Forms
    • Rates & Insurance
    • FAQ
    • Useful Therapeutic Apps
    • Patient Portal
  • Blog
  • Contact
Search

A Dietitian's Guide To Eating During Each Trimester of Pregnancy | You Versus Food | Well+Good

3/15/2021

0 Comments

 
"Registered Dietitian Tracy Lockwood Beckerman gives tips on the most nutritious foods to eat to support your baby in each trimester of your pregnancy."
0 Comments

The Surprising Truth About How Long Postpartum Depression Lasts

3/8/2021

0 Comments

 
By: Catherine Pearson | 10/28/2020
​"It's not just right after giving birth. A new study shows that for a significant number of moms, symptoms persist for years."
"When Jane gave birth to her baby 10 years ago, she very quickly began experiencing significant postpartum depression. It felt as though her brain had been abruptly “rewired,” and her symptoms grew worse over time.

“It felt like there was this thing in me that took root and grew,” said Jane, 47, who asked to use only her first name for this story. “Especially feeling suicidal. Those thoughts had a life of their own.”

As the months passed after giving birth, Jane found herself making clearer and clearer plans for how she’d take her own life. She recalls at one point, when her son was 3, nearly pointing out an overpass from which she could easily jump while strolling with her toddler and husband — then immediately recoiling. Not from the thought itself, but from the fact that she had almost casually given her “secret” away.

When her son turned 4, Jane finally recognized her own need to get help and got a prescription for Prozac. Practically overnight, her thoughts of suicide disappeared. And despite the fact that it was years after she had given birth, the roots of her depression felt obvious.

“For me, it could not be more clear that what I had was postpartum depression,” said Jane, who often worried she’d sound “crazy” if she opened up about what she was experiencing — particularly because she adored her son. “It felt almost like my brain was rewired during pregnancy.”

New research published in the journal Pediatrics this week supports what parents like Jane, as well as mental health professionals who specialize in the issue, have long known: that “postpartum” depression is not just something that strikes in the weeks and months immediately following childbirth. It can last for years and grow worse with time.
In the study, which tracked 5,000 mothers in New York over time, one-quarter of the women experienced elevated depression symptoms at some point in the three years after giving birth.

Of course, up to 80% of new moms experience some version of the so-called “baby blues” in the first few weeks after delivery. They may feel sad, anxious and cry a lot. Their moods may shift rapidly as their hormones fluctuate and they learn to care for a vulnerable new infant on extremely little sleep.

Postpartum depression may be more severe (though not always) and lasts longer, often appearing weeks after giving birth but sometimes not for a full year — or, as this new research suggests, even longer. It builds on a recent scientific review that found up to 50% of moms with postpartum depression struggle beyond the first year.

​Expanding our collective understanding of how long postpartum depression can persist is important largely because of screening.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists — which sets the guidelines OB-GYNs and other women’s health providers often use — recommends at least one screening for postpartum depression using an official tool or questionnaire. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends pediatricians screen for mental health issues in patients at various points in the first six months after they’ve given birth.

But that timeline may not do enough to catch those who are struggling, particularly because many patients with postpartum depression are reluctant to speak about what they’re experiencing out of a sense that their symptoms somehow mean they are bad parents.

That is why the authors of the new study clearly state that screening within the first year after giving birth is insufficient and that pediatricians should consider assessing patients for at least the first two years after they have a baby.
“We know that if a PMAD [perinatal mood and anxiety disorder] is untreated, it can continue. The symptoms can become worse, and many women can ride them right into a subsequent pregnancy,” echoed Paige Bellenbaum, chief external relations officer for The Motherhood Center, a mental health clinic based in New York City.
​
Even so, Bellenbaum believes far too few pediatricians, OB-GYNs and midwives meet even the current bare minimum recommendations for screening patients for depression and anxiety — to say nothing of assessing how they’re doing years down the road."
Learn more about how long postpartum depression lasts
0 Comments

Being A Mom Is Tough. Being A Mom In A Pandemic Is Even Tougher

11/5/2020

0 Comments

 
October 15, 2020| NPR Staff
"When I was growing up, I marveled at how my single mother was able to come home after a long day of work, make dinner, iron our school uniforms and help me and my sister with our homework.
I can't imagine how she would have managed during this pandemic.
What would she have done if she was laid off from her job at the airport? Would she be able to figure out — or afford — virtual school? How would she keep us safe from the virus?

Around the world, mothers have been struggling with these very challenges during the pandemic. We spoke to three mothers who shared how they've been faring: a mom of two in Jordan, expecting her third child and missing the in-person support from family; a dairy farmer with four teenage children — and 165 cows — to look after; and a single mom helping her son, who is on the autism spectrum, find joy in spite of coronavirus restrictions.

Read their stories, check out our special report on 19 women facing the coronavirus crisis — then find out how to nominate a woman to be profiled at the bottom of the story. -- Malaka Gharib"

"Calm And Juggling On A Dairy Farm

The cows rode around the milking carousel, a circular platform lined with 30 individual holding pens that slowly turn clockwise. In each pen, a black and white Holstein or brown and white Montbéliarde waited to be milked.
In the pit below the carousel, 40-year-old Nienke Pastoor stood at udder-height, attaching the milk-extracting pump to each cow as it passed her.

​Pastoor, her husband Jaap and Henk, an employee, need just 90 minutes to milk all 165 of the farm's dairy cows.

Pastoor and her husband co-manage a 336-acre dairy farm. One of her many responsibilities is to help run the daily milking operation. She's also the mother of four teenage children; she cooks and cleans; and she manages the farm's books. She regularly gives tours to schoolchildren from the nearby city of Groningen, taking them around the farm and letting them milk the cows by hand.

​For a while Pastoor cherished the sudden quiet and freedom that COVID-19 brought to the "Other World": the name given to the remote farming district in the far north of the Netherlands where the Pastoor family have been dairy farmers for 75 years. "We established a strange new family rhythm during the lockdown," she said on a blustery blue-skied afternoon.

The only set routines were the morning and afternoon milking of the cows, and the e-lessons of her children: Thomas, 17, Daniel, 15, and twins Emma and Paulien, 13, who like many students in the Netherlands switched to remote learning in March.

"There was less pressure," she said. "No music lessons or sports games to drive the children to. And because the weather was so nice, life definitely felt a little more relaxed." The only visitors to the farm during the lockdown, which lasted from March 15 till June 2, were the truck drivers who came by three times a week to pick up 3,079 gallons of milk, and the vet who visited every two weeks.

​But the pandemic also added new tasks to Pastoor's farm routine. She suddenly had to help the children with their schoolwork. "I made sure they were sitting at their laptops when they were supposed to be. I told them, 'We all have responsibilities in life. I have to do things. And so do you. You make sure the thing you are doing is done on time.' "

The children didn't mind the sudden shift to learning at home. They were able to sleep longer in the mornings as they didn't have to bike to school. The only frustration was the frequent technical glitches — no sound, the teacher's screen not working.

Pastoor was so busy she couldn't do the books for a month. Work kept piling up on the long wooden kitchen table where she normally sits.

"In the end, I had to tell [Jaap and the children] to get out of the kitchen so I could have some time for myself."

"It was difficult being a mother and a farm manager," she said, reflecting on lockdown life. "Everyone expected me to successfully juggle everything."

​But dealing with all these responsibilities didn't concern Pastoor. What truly worried her was how she would cope if her husband were to get COVID-19 and succumb to the virus — and she'd be left to manage the farm on her own. "The pandemic really brought that home."
FInish reading the stories of the struggles mothers face during a pandemic
0 Comments

New Research Shows Covid-19’s Impact On Gender Inequality And Mothers’ Mental Health

9/8/2020

0 Comments

 
By Josie Cox| July 30, 2020
"As the epicenter of Covid-19 continues to drift around the globe, leaving death and depression in its wake, it’s become increasingly difficult for even the most naive to defend a whimsical assertion favored by the privileged in the early days of the pandemic. Coronavirus is not a great leveller. It never was. 

​
Data made available to The New York Times earlier this month shows that Latino and African-American residents of the U.S. are three times as likely to become infected as their white neighbors. Black and Latino people are almost twice as likely to die from it. 

Other figures show that states with the highest level of income inequality have had a larger number of Covid-19-related deaths than states with lower inequality. And the gender divide is marked too.

As the epicenter of Covid-19 continues to drift around the globe, leaving death and depression in its wake, it’s become increasingly difficult for even the most naive to defend a whimsical assertion favored by the privileged in the early days of the pandemic. Coronavirus is not a great leveller. It never was. 

Data made available to The New York Times earlier this month shows that Latino and African-American residents of the U.S. are three times as likely to become infected as their white neighbors. Black and Latino people are almost twice as likely to die from it. 

Other figures show that states with the highest level of income inequality have had a larger number of Covid-19-related deaths than states with lower inequality. And the gender divide is marked too.

​Almost half of all mothers surveyed felt “rushed and pressed for time” more than half of the time during the lockdown, and 46% felt nervous and stressed more than half of the time. Only 15% of mothers said they had managed to set clear boundaries between work and family, largely on account of the closure of schools and childcare facilities. 

“It is clear that parents in particular need more support during school and childcare closures,” says Dr Heejung Chung of Kent’s School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research, who led the study.

“There are signs that the increased workload and conflict between work and family has negatively impacted parents’ mental wellbeing, especially mothers,” she adds. “We need a thorough gendered analysis on the economic impact of the lockdown and more resources and policies are needed to support parents especially mothers' labor market attachments.”

Biggest Setback in a Decade 

​This research adds to reams of existing evidence underscoring the extent to which the pandemic has chipped away at hard-earned progress towards both greater gender equality and women’s economic rights, while exacerbating an already terrifying mental health crisis.

Sofia Sprechmann, Secretary-General of humanitarian agency Care International, recently described Covid-19 as the biggest setback to gender equality in a decade. Research conducted by McKinsey has revealed that women’s jobs are 1.8 times more vulnerable to this crisis than men’s. The consultancy concluded that because of Coronavirus’ “regressive effect on gender equality”, global GDP growth could be $1 trillion lower in 2030 than it would be if women’s unemployment simply tracked that of men in each sector."
Finish reading about Covid-19's impact on gender inequality and mother's mental health
0 Comments

7 simple things you can do right now if you're feeling overwhelmed

6/30/2020

0 Comments

 
By: Katelyn Denning
"When was the last time you felt overwhelmed? Last week, yesterday, earlier today? My guess is, it probably wasn't that long ago. If your triggers are anything like the moms I work with, overwhelm can hit you at any point and in any situation.
Sometimes it's in the middle of the workday when the responsibilities and stresses of the job get to be so much that you think there's no way you'll ever climb out of this hole, let alone your inbox.

Sometimes it's in the evenings when you look around at the mess in your house, a pile of laundry and no certain plan for dinner that you feel like you've let your family down and what you should really do is quit your job so you could actually stay on top of all of it.

Sometimes overwhelm shows up when you're surrounded by two children who are wallowing in their own overwhelm of emotions, crying and whining, that you think life will be this way forever. And you're overwhelmed by the fact that you are the adult here.

Or sometimes, overwhelm waits to hit you until the craziness of the day has ended and you have your first quiet moment to yourself. When you finally sit down, exhale a big sigh of relief, and think about doing it all over again tomorrow, the crushing weight of overwhelm sits on you making it hard to breathe.
Can you relate?

No matter how it shows up for you, overwhelm feels heavy. It creates the feeling of being out of control in terms of practically everything you can think of. And like the temper tantrums we often witness in our children, it can be hard to snap out of.

Trust me—we have all been there and some of us probably more frequently than we would like to admit.
​

But just like we're taught how to approach and calm a toddler who is stuck in an emotionally overwhelming moment which often manifests as a screaming fit, there are things that we can do to help ourselves snap out of it, too. Things that can help us stop spiraling into that feeling of being out of control, and instead, grounds us in the present moment.

You will get through this.

Everything is not lost.

This is only temporary.

You've got this.

So the next time you feel that feeling, you know how it goes—your breath becomes short, your head starts to feel heavy, you can't see past your own nose and you just might break into tears if anyone asks you if you're okay—try one (or try all) of these things to catch your breath and reset."
click to read the 7 simple things you can do help yourself reset when you become overwhelmed
0 Comments

What to Know Before Your Surrogacy Journey

6/23/2020

0 Comments

 
"Surrogacy is an important family planning option, but be prepared for a lengthy, expensive and emotional process."
By David Dodge| April 17, 2020
"This guide was originally on October 11th 2019 in NYT Parenting."
"From the time they began dating as teenagers, Rita and Erikson Magsino, now 39 and 43, talked about the family they hoped to have together one day. Almost immediately after marrying in 2005, they tried to make that dream a reality.

But parenthood would have to wait — Magsino learned she had an aggressive form of endometriosis that made it difficult for her to become pregnant. For over a decade, the couple tried everything to conceive — including fertility drugs and advanced treatments like intrauterine insemination and in vitro fertilization. Twice, Magsino became pregnant, only to miscarry late in the second trimester. “After we lost twins at 20 weeks, we decided enough was enough,” she said. A generation ago, the couple’s attempts to have a biological child most likely would have ended there. Instead, thanks to improvements in reproductive medicine, they welcomed a baby boy into their home in May with the help of a gestational surrogate.

Surrogacy has also created an avenue to biological parenthood for thousands of others who can’t conceive or carry children on their own, such as same-sex couples and single men. As a gay, H.I.V.-positive man, Brian Rosenberg, 54, figured biological fatherhood was forever out of reach. But thanks to surrogacy, and a technique known as “sperm washing,” which prevents H.I.V. transmission, he and his husband, Ferd van Gameren, 59, welcomed twins, biologically related to Rosenberg, in 2010. “It’s still hard to believe,” Rosenberg said. “I thought this was a door that was shut to me.”

Still, would-be parents need to be prepared for a process that is far longer, more expensive and emotional than many people expect — it’s called a “surrogacy journey” for a reason. For this guide, I interviewed the types of experts you can expect to encounter during a surrogacy journey, including two fertility specialists, a lawyer, a psychologist and an agency caseworker."
Read more about what you need to know before your surrogacy journey
0 Comments

Relatable Orangutan Mom with No Time For Baby's Tantrums Pulls Kid Around Zoo Exhibit

4/1/2020

0 Comments

 
The mother-son duo made up after the adorable incident
By Kelli Bender| February 28, 2020 1:10PM
"Its a familiar scene: a mom trying to do her best with a tired, whiny kid refusing to budge from their spot on the floor or a public place. 

This time the tantrum didn't play out at a shopping mall, grocery store or playground; it was at the Pairi Daiza Zoo in Belgium.

According to the Daily Mail, three-year old orangutan Berani didn't want to leave playtime when mom Sari came calling. when mom tried to move the little primate from his spot, the kid threw a bit of a tantrum. 

Instead of giving in, Sari, a skilled and doting mother, literally took matters into her own hands, grabbing Berani and dragging him to a different spot in the zoo exhibit. 

The relatable moment was captured by photographer Koen Hartkamp, who also witnessed the mother-son duo make up after the silly incident.

"Just like all small children, Berani still has to listen to what mum says even though he's getting a bit more independent. ..and judging by the picture he didn't like it," the photographer told Daily Mail." 
Finish Reading About The Struggles Of Dealing With Your Children's Tantrums
0 Comments

Feeding a Preemie Means Swallowing Your Pride

1/29/2020

0 Comments

 

Photo: via Sarah DiGregorio

​"My daughter’s health needs changed the way I think about food, control and pleasure."
​By Sarah DiGregorio
"If eating is about pleasure, at least for me, cooking is about control. Knowing how to make onions sizzle gently in oil and start to go limp, then transparent, then light brown, then sweet and dark. It’s a transformation that’s entirely predictable, a product of muscle and sense memory. If I pay attention in the kitchen, if I am careful, nothing goes wrong.

When I was pregnant, I worked at Food & Wine magazine. Editing recipes, the biggest part of my job at the time, is a meticulous and satisfying exercise in imagining all the mistakes that could be made in a kitchen and then trying to prevent them.

It was 90 degrees out as my stomach started to swell, but in the office we were cooking and tasting crunchy escarole salads, potato gratin, roasts and gravy, butter cookies and layer cakes. Summer at a monthly cooking magazine is about Thanksgiving, and then the holidays.

I liked to think of my daughter growing plump and happy and smart on everything I ate. Though I’d cut out alcohol, raw fish and cured meats, I ate everything else the test kitchen produced, imagining that this was the embryonic beginning of giving her a healthy, pleasurable relationship with food and her body. “Eating for two” is an irritating phrase, but I saw it as the first benefit of being alive that I could share with her.
Despite my well-laid plans, it turned out the placenta was failing.
​
My daughter was not, actually, living the fetal high life. My body was keeping all that good food for itself — the snow-white slice of coconut layer cake, the bitter sautéed winter greens. First she fell off her growth curve and then, a fetus slowly starving, her body ground to a halt. She was not safe inside me, so the doctors took her out nearly 12 weeks early, an emaciated, shivery bundle, a 1-pound 13-ounce creature of skin and bones."
Read more about the challenges of feeding a preemie
0 Comments

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    October 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    February 2018
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    May 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016

    Categories

    All
    4th Trimester
    Anxiety
    Babies
    Baby
    Black Lives Matter
    Black Maternal Mental Health
    Black Motherhood
    Body Image
    Brain Health
    Breakup
    Breastfeeding
    Breast Milk Anitibodies
    Cannabis And Breastfeeding
    Childbirth
    Childhood Anxiety
    Children
    Climate Change
    Cognitive Dissonance
    Collaborative Commuication
    Communication
    Confidence
    Coping
    Coronavirus
    Counseling Scottsdale
    COVID 19
    COVID-19
    COVID 19 Vaccine And Pregnancy
    Depression
    Diversity
    Doom Spiral
    Dr. Rodriguez Siuts
    Dr. Rodriguez-siuts
    Early Relationships
    Easy Dinner Recipes
    Economy
    Emotion
    Empaths
    Empathy
    Essential Oils Safety While Pregnant
    Exercise
    Failure
    Family Moments
    Family Roadtrip
    Fathers
    Fear
    Feeding And Nutrition
    Fertility
    Finland
    Food And Mood
    Frontline Moms
    Gender Inequality
    Goal Setting
    Grief And Loss
    Guided Meditation
    Halloween Kids Crafts
    Happiness
    Happy Couples
    Healing
    Health
    Healthy Foods
    Healthy Gut
    Healthy Pregnancy
    Healthy Relationships
    Improved Mood
    Infant Mental Health
    Infertility
    Inner Peace
    Inspiration
    Kids At Home Art Activities
    Kids Mindfulness Activities
    Listening
    Marriage
    Maternal Mental Health
    Maternal Mental Health Disorders
    Maternal Mental Health Psychologist
    Maternity Costumes
    Meditation
    Meditation For Pregnancy
    Megan Markle
    Men And Postpartum Depression
    Men's Health
    Mental Health
    Mental Health Of Children And Parents
    Mindfullness
    Mindfulness
    Miscarriage
    Mom Guilt
    Mom Shaming
    Motherhood
    Mothers In Crisis
    Motivation
    Newborn
    New Mom
    Nighttime Affirmations
    Nutrition
    Nutrition For The Brain
    Pandemic
    Pandemic Parenting
    Pandemic Pregnancy
    Pandemic Unemployment
    Panic Attacks
    Parental Leave
    Parenting
    Perfectionism
    Performance
    Perimenopause
    Perinatal Anxiety
    Perinatal Depression
    Perinatal Mental Health
    Perinatalmooddisorders
    Personal Stories
    Polycystic Ovary Syndrome
    Positive Affirmations
    Positive Benefits Of Nature
    Positive Habits
    Positive Parenting
    Positive Pregnancy Affirmations
    Positive Self-Affirmations
    Postpartum
    Postpartum Anxiety
    Postpartum Care
    Postpartum Depression
    Postpartum Fitness
    Postpartum Healing
    Postpartum Health
    Postpartum Mental Health
    Postpartum Mood Concerns
    Postpartum OCD
    Postpartum Psychosis
    Postpartum Recovery
    Postpartum Scary Thoughts
    Postpartum Self Care
    Postpartum Self-care
    Postpartum Support
    Postpartum Workouts
    Preemies
    Pregnancy
    Pregnancy Costumes
    Pregnancy Insomnia
    Pregnancy Loss
    Pregnancy Meditation
    Pregnancy Nutrition
    Pregnancy Pillows
    Pregnancy Risks
    Pregnancy Stretches
    Pregnancy Yoga
    Prenatal Care
    Prenatal Depression
    Prenatal Massage
    Prenatal Self Care
    Prenatal Self-care
    Prenatal Workouts
    Prenatal Yoga Bedtime
    Procrastination
    Relationship Advice
    Relationships
    Remedies Pregnancy Gas
    Reproductive Mental Health
    Resiliency
    Sandra Rodriguez Siuts
    Sandra Rodriguez-siuts
    School Anxiety
    Scottsdale Psychologist
    Second Infertility
    Self-care
    Self-care Tips
    Self-esteem
    Setting Boundaries
    Sleep
    Sleep And Pregnancy
    Social Connectedness
    Social Justice
    Stay At Home Orders
    Staying Grounded
    Stillborn
    Stress
    Success
    Suicide
    Surrogacy
    Teaching Kids Manners
    Teen Mental Health
    Therapy
    Therapy Arizona
    Therapy Phoenix
    Therapy Scottsdale
    Time Management Tips
    Traumatic Birth
    Vacation
    Webinar
    Well-behaved Kids
    Wellness
    Women
    Women Losing Jobs
    Women's Health
    Women's Health Psychologist
    Womens Health Psychologist
    Womens Mental Health
    Womens Psychology
    Working Moms
    Workplace
    Youth Sports
    Zulresso

    RSS Feed

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
​SANDRA RODRIGUEZ-SIUTS, PH.D., LLC 

9590 E Ironwood Square Drive, Suite 210
Scottsdale, AZ 85258
Phone: (480) 473-5411
Fax: (480) 436-6900
© Copyright 2023 Sandra Rodriguez-Siuts, Ph.D. - All Rights Reserved
  • Home
  • About
  • Services
    • Prenatal and Postpartum Therapy
    • Reproductive Mental Health Therapy
    • General Maternal Mental Health
  • Patient Info
    • Patient Forms
    • Rates & Insurance
    • FAQ
    • Useful Therapeutic Apps
    • Patient Portal
  • Blog
  • Contact