Non Gestational Parent Support

You are so excited. You’re pregnant! Well, your partner is. You have an equal yet different role in this part of the parenting journey. You feel relieved AND a deep loss, sadness even, that it won’t be you who is pregnant. 

It’s hard to talk about the pregnancy with loved ones sometimes because while your family and friends are happy for you, they don’t really get why you didn’t carry the pregnancy. When they ask, as someone in the group always does, you promptly quip back “Well, someone had to carry the baby,” and when they follow up with, “well, why wasn’t it you?” you politely answer, “Well, it was right for them to do so” and smile, but inside, you feel a knot in your chest or a kick in your gut. You don’t want to explain to everyone the decisions you made or why you made them. 

You know you shouldn’t have to answer such personal, if not, invasive, questions and yet, each time they are asked, you forget for a minute that you don’t have to answer, and you answer anyways. You know why you both decided to have your partner be pregnant with your collective child and while it was the right decision for the both of you, it’s still hard to feel so unseen in your role in this new life-to-be. You don't want to keep drifting into feeling disconnected.

At Waves, we help the non-gestational parent discover their vital role in their family while sifting through their feelings and the pain of being misunderstood. As queer and trans - centered therapists, we do not assume who is in your family, chosen or blood, nor do we assume the roles you have in your family structure. We ask you what family means to you specifically and what you want in and out of your relationships with your partner(s) or spouse(s), your child(ren), and others in your family (yes, even your pets). Working with Dr. Abigail Weissman at Waves, means working together to develop a plan to address your concerns and goals through weekly therapy sessions.

Dr. Abigail Weissman (she, her, hers) is a psychologist and founder of Waves, A Psychological Corporation. She is a queer and trans toddler mom and has studied perinatal and postpartum mental health through Postpartum Support International. She is currently studying for her Perinatal Mental Health certification test. She has also provided a keynote presentation on Queer and Trans Parenting at a recent conference on Diversity in Parenting. In her work with clients, Abi prioritizes the individual needs of the client, while taking into account one’s family and cultural needs. She is always thinking about race, ability, religion, socioeconomic class, status, size, sexual orientation, and gender identity, among other identity labels and power differentials, while working with clients and their loved ones. For more information about Dr. Abigail Weissman, please click here or to start working with her, please schedule your free 15-minute video or phone consultation and start feeling better today.