THE THIRD WATCH

An 8-week virtual group for mothers in the first year postpartum

It is 3am and you are the only one awake.

The baby is finally quiet. Your husband is asleep. You have been up since 1:00, and before that you slept for forty minutes, and you cannot remember the last full thought you had. You love this baby. You would lie down in traffic for this baby. You also cannot stop crying, and you do not know how to say that out loud without someone taking something away from you.

Everyone asks how the baby is sleeping. Nobody asks how you are.

Here is what I want you to know: what you are carrying is common, it is treatable, and it is not a character flaw. It is also not something you were built to carry by yourself at 3am with the door closed.

The Third Watch is a small, closed group of eight women who are in the same year you are in.

We meet online for ninety minutes a week for eight weeks. Same eight women every week, which means you do not have to reintroduce yourself or re-explain your story. By week three you will not have to finish your sentences.

What we actually do:

This is clinical group therapy, not a mommy meetup and not a webinar. Each week we work through one piece of what the postpartum year does to a woman:

The gap between who you were and who you are now

Rage, and why nobody warned you about it

Intrusive thoughts, and why having them does not make you dangerous

Birth, and what to do when it did not go the way you were told it would

Your marriage, which has quietly become a logistics company

Feeding, sleep, and the shame that gets attached to both

Your body, and living in it again

Asking for help without apologizing for it

Faith is welcome in this room and it is never required. Some weeks we pray. Some weeks a woman says she is angry at God, and that is allowed to be said out loud here, which is the whole point.

The details

Eight women. The group closes once it is full and no one joins midway.

Ninety minutes, once a week, for eight weeks.

Wednesdays at 8:30 PM Central, after bedtime, on purpose.

Online, on a secure HIPAA-compliant platform. Camera on, headphones on, in a room with a door.

Babies are welcome. Nurse, rock, bounce, walk out of frame. Nobody here is offended by a baby.

$60 per session, or $440 paid in full for all eight.

Before you sign up:

Every woman has a free 10-minute call with me first. It is not a sales call. It is so I can make sure a group is genuinely the right fit for you right now, and so you can hear my voice before you are on a screen with seven strangers.

Some women need individual therapy first, or psychiatric care, or a higher level of support than a weekly group can offer. If that is you, I will tell you honestly, and I will help you find it. You will not leave that call with nothing.

One requirement I cannot make an exception on: you must be physically located in Texas during our sessions. My license is a Texas license. If you are outside Texas, scroll down, because I have something for you too.

If you are reading this for someone else:

If you are her husband, her mother, her best friend, and you have been watching her disappear: send her this page. Do not sign her up. She has to be the one who chooses it, and honestly, her choosing it is part of what makes it work.

What you can do is stop asking how the baby is sleeping and start asking how she is. Ask twice. She will deflect the first time.

If you are outside Texas:

I cannot legally provide therapy to you, and I am not going to pretend otherwise.

What I can do:

Postpartum Support International has free, moderated online support groups running every week and a helpline at 1-800-944-4773. They will also help you find a perinatal specialist in your state. postpartum.net

The Maternal Mental Health Hotline: 1-833-TLC-MAMA. Free, 24/7, call or text.

If you are in crisis right now, call or text 988.

Bridgette Reed, LMFT-Associate (#205495), supervised by Laurie Hightower, LMFT-S (#201471). Relationality Counseling. Services are provided to clients physically located in Texas. This group is psychotherapy and is not a substitute for emergency care. If you are experiencing a mental health emergency, call 988 or go to your nearest emergency room.