While being pregnant or having a baby is a happy occasion, it can also be a time of overwhelming stress for many women. Joining me for straight talk on postpartum wellness and mental health is holistic psychiatrist and neurologist, Dr. Aparna Iyer.

She completed her residency training in psychiatry at Albany Medical Center in New York, where she was selected as a chief resident and continued on to work as an Assistant Professor and faculty member. Dr. Iyer also served as an assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. She has been recognized as one of D Magazine’s Best Doctors in Dallas and Best Doctors in Collin County. Dr. Iyer has a private practice in Frisco, Texas where she sees outpatients and has a special interest in working with women who are pregnant and postpartum. 

“Actually what’s normal is for people to have ambivalence during pregnancy and postpartum To say, you know, I have all these mixed feelings, and they’re so strong, and it feels overwhelming, that I feel extremely happy, and I feel grateful. But at the same time, I feel really sad and angry. I think what can be so disorienting about that is that those feelings are exact opposites of each other. And yet they can coexist in your brain around the same time around something that maybe might be like, the happiest time in your life otherwise.”

Therapist Unplugged Podcast

Hosted by Laurie Poole of The Montfort Group, this podcast pulls back the curtain on what really happens in and around the therapy room. No jargon, no perfection—just honest conversations about the messy, meaningful, and deeply human parts of life. We cover everything from burnout and boundaries to sex, shame, relationships, parenting, grief, identity shifts, and mental health in the modern world. Each episode features licensed therapists who get it—because we live it too.