Freckled Foodie & Friends

In this episode, I sit down with Melissa Fairhurst, a postpartum therapist and maternal mental health expert, to discuss the various challenges new parents can encounter with each other during the postpartum phase and ways to work through this overwhelming time. Melissa shares how her own postpartum experiences have informed her work, what the “roommate phase” is and why it feels so permanent when you’re in it, and how these unexpected moments of disconnect can arise with your partner. We also discuss the unspoken expectations we have about our partners before the baby arrives and how that can set us up for resentment, how it’s imperative to accept that the non-birthing partner can’t fully understand the birthing partner’s experience, and why it’s essential to normalize couple’s therapy. Melissa shares tips for communicating your needs to your partner, why it’s important not to let resentments fester, and why “I” statements are more effective than “you” statements. Finally, we discuss the importance of settin