Overview

• Weeks after learning of her unexpected pregnancy in early 2023, Hartema’s anxiety disorder began following a panic attack prompted by a seemingly innocuous Instagram photo.
• She was hospitalized twice in psychosomatic clinics — once during pregnancy and again in late 2024, when she spent ten weeks in treatment and marked her 30th birthday there.
• Hartema endured a complicated birth that involved significant blood loss and two surgeries, and she spent the first hours apart from her newborn daughter.
• Ongoing anxiety made it difficult for her to feel maternal instincts or leave the house with her baby, leading to intense guilt over her temporary separation from her child.
• Hartema says a combination of talk therapy and medication has improved her mental health, allowing her to reconnect with motherhood and cope with daily challenges.