Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week
This week is Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week and we always try to engage in the conversation having been personally affected by this.
Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week is a week-long campaign dedicated to talking about mental health challenges before, during and after pregnancy.
The week is all about:
- Raising public and professional awareness of maternal mental health
- Advocating for women and families impacted by it
- Positively changing attitudes
- Helping people access the information, care and support they need to recover
I know for me personally, it took me quite a while to access the help I needed after giving birth to my first baby. I was so focussed on my very intense physical recovery, that I overlooked how much I was emotionally struggling. I was also embarrassed to admit that I wasn’t enjoying being a mum and that I felt like I was drowning. It was only later as I started to re-emerge that I realised what a dark place I had been in.
Once I was starting to think about possibly having another child, I began the process of doing a lot of therapy. There was so much I needed to work through and process from, my first birth and the postnatal period. I engaged in META-Health, EFT, Reiki, and transpersonal healing. I was lucky that my background made accessing support of this kind easy for me, once I was happy to admit that I needed help. Part of my personal mission is to make these kinds of tools accessible to everyone, and empower people to take their healing journey into their own hands.
There are so many Maternal Mental Health challenges that parents might face, and a broad spectrum of severity: some may include
- Prenatal Depression
- Perinatal Anxiety
- Perinatal OCD
- Postnatal Depression
- Postnatal Psychosis
Although there seems to be a movement of more conversations happening, I think we still have a way to go before this topic is fully normalised. Please check our instagram this week as we will be sharing as much content as we can surrounding this topic to try and help spread awareness and support.
If you live in the UK and are looking for extra support or advice urgently, there are a number of services you can approach:
- Talk to a health professional e.g your GP, Midwife or Health Visitor
- Go to A&E at your local hospital
- Call the emergency services on 999
- Call Samaritans on 116 123 (free to call and will not appear on your phone bill), or email jo@samaritans.org
Association of Postnatal Illness
Helpline: 10am – 2pm – 0207 386 0868
Email: info@apni.org
Helpline: 9am-8pm every day – 0843 2898 401
Emai: info@pandasfoundation.org.uk
Petals offers free-of-charge specialist counselling to anyone who has experienced pregnancy or baby loss.
Web: petalscharity.org/counsellingcontact/
Email: counselling@petalscharity.org
Tel: 0300 688 0068
Tommy’s has a team of in-house midwives who offer free support and information for women and their families at any stage of pregnancy and after birth.
Web: www.tommys.org
Helpline: 9am-5pm Mon-Fri - 0800 014 7800
or contact them via email, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
Email: midwife@tommys.org