Maternity Mental Health Awareness Week, organised by the Maternal Mental Health Alliance (MMHA), runs from the 2nd to the 8th of May. This week-long campaign discusses mental health problems ‘before, during and after pregnancy’.
Perinatal Mental Health
Most of us are familiar with postnatal depression, impacting mothers within the first year of giving birth. According to the NHS, it impacts one in ten women and also affects fathers and partners.
Perinatal mental health encompasses the time during pregnancy and those first few years after birth. It addresses mental health issues such as “antenatal and/or postnatal depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, postpartum psychosis and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).” MMHA
In this blog, we take a look at: perinatal mental health, why we’re talking about it, the law, and how employers can support.