In this episode of our podcast, CBTalks, SilverCloud’s Senior Digital Health Scientist Dr. Jorge Palacios chatted with SilverCloud user Eva Slabejova about her struggles with anxiety during pregnancy and how SilverCloud's Space for Perinatal Wellbeing programme helped her overcome this.
Eva Slabejova is from Slovakia, 39 years old, and the mother of Zuzana and Lenka (pictured). Now 9 months old, Lenka was born in 2021 while the UK was in partial lockdown. Eva miscarried in her first pregnancy at four months in 2016. After the miscarriage, Eva wasn’t feeling herself.
“I was the opposite of my normal self. Before I was normally quite sociable and talkative but after the baby loss, I became more withdrawn, I just wanted to be alone.”
After ruling out any physical issues as the cause of her feeling tired and withdrawn her GP recommended that it was psychological and referred her to face to face therapy. After a couple of months, she and her partner felt ready to try again for a baby.
After falling pregnant with Zuzana (eldest child), Eva attended talking and group therapy to help ease her fears surrounding pregnancy. However, after falling pregnant again in 2020 during the pandemic, she found fear overtook her. Through using the SilverCloud Space for Perinatal programme, Eva has been able to manage her anxiety, something which she is passionate about sharing.
“I liked the programme so much; it was so easy to go through and I remember my therapist who checked in with me at regular intervals through phone calls saying to me you’re going too fast, but I was just so excited, and it reminded me of my university studies. I really liked the idea of how you can log back in up to a year after, I would log in from time to time to repeat some exercises and use some tools. So that was quite useful”
Eva also explained how the programme helped her to deal with her worries in a healthy way and to communicate more effectively, especially with her partner.
“I know how to express myself more effectively to avoid unnecessary fights...I think our communication as husband and wife has improved a lot thanks to this programme. Instead of just putting blame on him, I would say it’s about me, I feel like this, I need a break, I need this. He’s been more supportive and gets my message.”
Dr. Palacios asked Eva what advice she would give to parents who may be struggling with their mental health.
“I would definitely say that not to feel ashamed. If we feel overwhelmed and we really need help I think it’s OK to get that help. I always say to my friends and family when we have headaches, or physical problems we call our GP and we ask for help but often we forget to ask for help when we have mental problems.”
If you have enjoyed this episode, please rate/review and share it with your friends. You can also follow SilverCloud on Instagram @SilverCloudH for more content. And if you are interested in gaining access to SilverCloud's evidence-based digital mental health platform, instant access is available with a referral from your GP, and some select Health Plans or Employers.
As discussed in our podcast Eva used SilverCloud’s Space for Perinatal Wellbeing programme during and after her pregnancy. For more information on this programme click on the link below.