Maternal Mental Health Week: 29 April – 5 May | News

Did you know 1 in 4 women are affected by mental health difficulties during pregnancy and for the first year after their babies are born?

Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week   is dedicated to talking about mental health problems before, during and after pregnancy. The week is all about:

• raising public and professional awareness of  perinatal mental health problems
• advocating for women and families impacted
• changing attitudes
• helping people access the information, care and support they need to recover.
  
  

The week is organised and led by MMHA member  Perinatal Mental Health Partnership UK  (PMHP UK), who launched the first-ever UK Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week in 2017.

PMHP UK is a small group of individuals, including parents with lived experience and clinicians, who came together to raise awareness of maternal mental health.

This years theme is around ‘rediscovering you’ with daily themes focused throughout the week:

• Monday 29 April -    Demystifying perinatal mental illness
• Tuesday 30 April -    Moving together through your changing world
• Wednesday 1 May -    World Maternal Mental Health Day - Stronger together
• Thursday 2 May -    Finding you in this journey: identity transformation in the perinatal period
• Friday 3 May -    Perinatal positivity pot: shining a light on parent voices and recovery stories
• Saturday 4 May -    Support for all: sharing empowering resources for all families in the UK and beyond
• Sunday 5 May -    Reflections on rediscovery: looking back over the week

World Maternal Mental Health Day will take place on Wednesday 1 May.

Our maternal and perinatal mental health services 

We have our own community based services, supporting people in our five boroughs,  including the  North London Partners Specialist Perinatal Mental Health Service (SPMHS) and   Maple Service.  

North London Partners Specialist Perinatal Mental Health Service (SPMHS)

The North London Partners (NLP) Specialist Perinatal Mental Health Service (SPMHS) is a community based mental health service for women/birthing people who live in the five London Boroughs of Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Haringey and Islington. We provide specialist assessment and treatment for women with mental health problems who:

• have mild/moderate to severe mental health needs
• are planning a pregnancy and need advice
• are currently pregnant
• have had a baby in the past 18 months (with follow-up for up to 24 months)
  
  

We are a multidisciplinary team including Psychiatrists, Clinical/Counselling Psychologists, Nurses, Occupational Therapists, Social Workers, Nursery Nurses, Assistant Psychologists, Assistant Practitioners, Family Therapist, Pharmacist and Administrators. 

Find out more about Perinatal Mental Health in this video: Quick Guide for Health Professionals

Read more , including how to access our local services, who the services are for and helpful resources and information. 

Maple Service 

We are a community-based psychological therapy service. We support people experiencing fear, trauma or loss arising from fertility, pregnancy or birth-related difficulties as well as the loss of a baby.

The North London Partners Maple Service is a dedicated team of clinical/counselling psychologists and a peer support worker (someone with lived experience of birth-related trauma).

We offer comprehensive assessment and therapeutic support to people whose level of distress is significantly interfering with their quality of life. Distress may be related to the following areas:

• Fear of childbirth (tokophobia)
• Birth trauma
• Pregnancy loss (associated with fertility treatment, miscarriage, termination or due to a serious medical condition)
• Stillbirth or death of a baby
• Loss of a child due to social care proceedings: This includes working with parents whose babies under 2 years old have gone into care or when an unborn child may go into care at birth.
  
  

For people who have experienced a perinatal loss or loss of a baby due to social care procedures, it doesn’t matter how long ago the loss occurred, they can still access Maple if they are currently experiencing difficulties primarily related to it.

Read more , including conditions treated, how to access the service and who the service is for.