The Mental Health Midwife: Interview with Tessa Van Der Vord

  Today Zoe speaks to specialist midwife Tessa Van Der Vord, also known as ‘The Mental Health Midwife’. Tessa opens up about suffering with severe anxiety when pregnant with her son, as those who work in mental health are not immune to experiencing their own difficulties.   KEY TAKEAWAYS Tessa wasn’t too sure on what she wanted to do when she ‘grew up’ and became a midwife almost by fluke! She had a friend whose mum was a midwife and it was listening to her stories that inspired her to go into midwifery. Tessa is a specialist midwife in mental health. Which means she has experience of working with different disciplines, teams and supports women with a history of or with current mental health needs. Because Tessa has been surrounded by friends and family that have had issues with fertility and pregnancy she always had a worry that she would too have problems. Tessa became pregnant just after she got married, she found out very early in the pregnancy but at her 7 week scan was told to ‘prepare for the worst’. Tessa knew logically the pregnancy was early so she shouldn’t have ‘got her hopes up’ but what mother doesn’t think, plan and dream about their baby when they find out they are pregnant? After a week wait she found out that the embryo was fine and doing brilliantly. She felt great at first but then the anxiety started to creep back in. At 9 weeks Tessa had a bleed, the embryo was ok but she kept having bleeds and all of these things kept adding layers and layers to her anxiety. Often when we suffer from mental health issues, especially for the first time, it’s hard to know when and if you need help and support. Being a midwife, Tessa convinced herself that all the things she had seen and dealt with would happen to her. She had so much anxiety around all aspects of pregnancy and birth. It also affected her being able to bond with her baby at the start. If any of Tessa’s friends listen to this episode she says they would be surprised to hear how severe her anxiety was. In the future if Tessa suffers again she has vowed to be more open and transparent about how she is feeling with others. Tessa’s top mum hack for others is to accept any kind of help you can in the early weeks, create strong relationships with other mothers and be kind. BEST MOMENTS   “Many of her closest friends still do not know the extent of what she went through”   “Wow those hands have delivered babies, what an amazing thing to do”   “As a midwife, you know about all these things that can happen and I just wanted to check”   “Doing all the things I tell women not to do, going on google, to find things”   “I was in awe of my body”   “It takes a village to raise a mother to raise a child”   VALUABLE RESOURCES     www.petalscharity.org www.tommys.org www.arc-uk.org www.sands.org.uk     ABOUT THE GUEST   Tessa Van Der Vord @mentalhealth_midwife     ABOUT THE HOST Zoe Cresswell Devoted mother of two (and a big hairy dog), UK trained midwife, doula and personal trainer, specialising in pre and postnatal fitness. Zoe was born in the UK and before moving to Dubai in 2013 and worked as a midwife in central London, both in a birth centre and a very busy NHS hospital. Although late to the scene, Zoe is an aspiring athlete having won numerous triathlons and representing Great Britain where she placed within the top 10 on the world stage. With her husband James, the couple will soon be launching their cloth nappy company, Bop & Bee, where they hope to inspire families to swap a few disposable nappies a day for the more planet friendly option of cloth. Zoe’s goal is to share her knowledge and experience, tell real life stories, manage expectations and open up those often difficult conversations. Zoe’s own motherhood journey has been full of twists and turns as she put everything on hold and went through numerous miscarriages and rounds of IVF.   CONTACT DETAILS Instagram : @zoecresswell_me Facebook: Zoe Cresswell LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-cresswell