87 – When motherhood changes your brain: the missing role of hormones Laura Guckian - The Dr Louise Newson Podcast

Becoming a mother is often described as the happiest time in a woman’s life. But for many, it can also be the hardest.

In this week’s episode, Dr Louise Newson is joined by Motherhood Coach, Maternal Mental Wellbeing expert and Founder of Mind Mommy Coaching, Laura Guckian, who shares her deeply personal story of severe postnatal mental health difficulties that led her to admit herself to a psychiatric hospital when her son was just 10 months old. Years later, she was diagnosed with autism and ADHD, helping her make sense of experiences that had never fully been explained.

Together, Louise and Laura explore why hormonal changes after pregnancy can have such profound effects on the brain, particularly for neurodivergent women, and why hormones are so often overlooked in conversations about maternal mental health. They discuss the limitations of labels such as postnatal depression, why antidepressants don’t address the underlying cause for every woman and how understanding progesterone, testosterone and estradiol may transform the way we support mothers.

This is an important conversation about feeling unseen, finding answers and why every woman deserves healthcare that looks beyond symptoms to understand what’s really happening.

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