Mom’s Mental Health

Mental health is a dynamic place where as you pass through life, through good times and bad, it ebbs and flows. During the time that is not so great, there is Hopeful Beginnings where you can get the help you need before and after having a baby. If you are pregnant and it’s unplanned, or circumstances have changed, we are here to talk about options, including adoption. If you decide on adoption, you can pick the adoptive parents that best fit your dreams for your child. Part of the understanding of using Hopeful Beginnings is that our adoptive families will welcome a visit at our agency for you to keep seeing your birth child, if you wish, and tell the truth to your child of why you placed them with the family that you did and not that you didn’t want them or chose to abandon them. We are here to help guide you into decision-making that will last a lifetime in a healthy way. We invite high schools to ask us to present our Teen Parenting Program to them for a possible partnership so that their students become successful in academics and parenting. We embrace you at the time when you enter our baby closet and keep your pride in accepting diapers, formula, and clothing for your precious little one. We guide you to resources in your area that can help you in the situation that you are in and experiencing.

Mental Health Services are just as important as Physical Health. With Covid still lingering, mental health has become less of a stigma for most people. We are there to teach you decision-making as well as ways to keep mentally healthy and fit. Some of you have had to keep secrets within your families such as abuse and fear. We take you the next step in working with those secrets to stop blaming yourself for what indeed happened to you. We will send you to specialists surrounding those secrets that can wind up keeping you healthy. With good mental health, each following relationship that you make will be healthier than the last one!

We counsel in English and Spanish. There is no area or township that you must live in. We take women all through Illinois, either in person or virtually. We want you to be successful and move forward with your dreams. Of course, we have you do some looking back on the things that bother you the most, but the most important thing is to bring your new skills with you to the future you!

If you have a pregnancy loss, we want you to grieve and talk about how you might think that it is your fault and then share with you the reality of the loss. There really is no mother that wants to see any of this happen, so she couldn’t possibly have caused it. We know that this type of grief takes time. You take as long as you wish! You can call us to ask questions or make an appointment to see one of our therapists.

In addition to mental health, the therapists are there to include ideas and activities to do with your babies to stimulate their growth and development as well as yours. You can share what you have learned from your own family about having a baby and they can give you what the latest research is about babies’ position in taking a nap and going to sleep. Research-based counseling and education is the best. In my nursing career, much has changed in the literature. Sleeping positions for babies have changed from putting babies on their tummies, sides, and now back. In fact, with the new research, there are fewer deaths with putting your child, “Back to Bed” which means lay the baby on their back without pillows, blankets, bumper pads, stuffed animals, mobiles, or other toys.

From a cultural perspective, many parents put their babies between them in their bed. Too many children have suffocated and died. It is much better to have a bassinet that can get close to your bed, but not in your bed.

Also, oftentimes moms from different cultures are afraid of their children not getting enough nutrition either from breastfeeding or formula feeding. What you are feeding your baby is NOT MILK, but rather a formula made up of all of the proteins, vegetables, fruits, dairy, and grains that baby needs in order to grow. Please read the directions on the formula can and put exactly the amount of powder in the babies’ bottles that they tell you to. The same with water. Do not be tempted to dilute to save on formula. If you are having a tough time making ends meet, you can sign up for WIC, which stands for Women, Infants, and Children. This agency will give you just about enough formula for a month. You can call Hopeful Beginnings for one or two cans extra per month. We want to see you have a healthy baby!

Never give baby Tylenol, Motrin, Robitussin, or any over-the-counter medication for older children and adults for common complaints such as a cold, cough, fever, etc. You will need to administer the baby form of the above-mentioned medications. If given in the adult form, the baby will become severely ill.

Do not use kitchen utensils to measure medication for babies or older children. Kitchen spoons are not calculated for medication. Only measuring spoons are exact measurements. I have seen medication be administered to babies in syringes or spoons with measurements on top. You must be exact for children otherwise poisoning from too much medicine can occur. Also, when your health care provider orders antibiotics. You must give all of the antibiotics to the child at the various times that they are ordered. Just because the baby feels and acts better, does not mean that the baby shouldn’t keep taking the medication. Otherwise, that sore throat that baby has will come back worse than the first time.