May We See You: Honoring Maternal Mental Health Awareness Month
Photo by Alisa Anton on Unsplash
May brings blooming flowers, longer days, and a gentle reminder that growth often follows deep challenge.
It’s also Mental Health Awareness Month—a time to break silence, reduce stigma, and center the importance of emotional well-being. Within that, we hold special space for Maternal Mental Health Awareness Month, honoring the unique and often unseen mental health journeys of those who mother, in all the forms mothering can take.
Let’s be honest—motherhood is often idealized.
We're told it should be instinctual, joyful, and fulfilling. And while it can be all those things, the reality is often more complex. For many, it also brings exhaustion, identity shifts, isolation, rage, grief, and anxiety. And yet, much of this remains unspoken. Stigmatized. Dismissed.
That silence can be harmful. Up to 1 in 5 people experience significant mental health challenges during pregnancy or postpartum—including depression, anxiety, and trauma-related symptoms. And for BIPOC mothers and birthing people, these experiences are often compounded by systemic inequities, medical racism, and a lack of culturally responsive care.
So this month—and always—we’re not just raising awareness.
We’re naming the need for change. Decolonizing maternal mental health means honoring rest over productivity, community care over individual sacrifice, and ancestral wisdom alongside clinical tools. It means challenging systems that tell caregivers to "push through" rather than ask what you need to feel held.
And it means remembering that we were never meant to do this alone.
Mothering in community—whether that means chosen family, aunties, friends, neighbors, or fellow parents—is powerful. In many cultures, caregiving has always been a shared experience. Returning to that truth can be healing. We need each other. We need spaces where we can be soft, be honest, be supported, and be seen.
If you’re navigating the highs and lows of mothering, here are a few things that may support you:
Name your truth – Journaling, voice memos, or saying it out loud to someone safe can help release the pressure of keeping it all in.
Tend to your nervous system – Grounding exercises like slow breathing, stretching, walking barefoot on grass, or even humming can help soothe your body.
Challenge unrealistic expectations – You are not meant to parent like you’re not a person with needs. Rest is not a reward—it’s essential.
Lean into connection – Whether through therapy, a group, or your own people, being witnessed in your experience matters. You don’t have to carry it all alone.
Honor your lineage – Many of us mother while healing from what we didn’t receive. That’s sacred work. You are breaking cycles and building something new.
And if you are someone who was raised by a mother with untreated or unacknowledged mental health struggles, this month may bring up layered emotions of your own. It’s okay if this season brings grief, anger, confusion, or compassion. Your experience matters too. Healing the impact of what wasn’t offered is also a form of mothering—one that deserves just as much tenderness and support.
At our practice, we hold space for the layered, non-linear, deeply personal experience of mothering—and of being mothered. Therapy can be a place to breathe, grieve, laugh, rage, and reconnect with yourself. Whether you’re a new parent, grieving parent, stepmom, future parent, child of a struggling mother, or simply wondering where you fit—this month is for you, too.
You are not alone. You are not failing. You are worthy of support.
If any part of this resonated with you, we invite you to reach out. Therapy can be a space to feel seen, supported, and not so alone in your journey. We are not meant to do this alone. We’re here when you are ready.
About the Author
After spending years in a local community mental health setting and group practice in leadership positions, Tina D. Shah (PsyD, LP) decided to start Collaboration for Psychological Wellness, LLC to expand access and reduce barriers to services.