Perinatal mental health problems

A 'perinatal' mental health problem is one that you experience any time from becoming pregnant up to a year after you give birth. This may be new mental health problem, or an episode of Something you've experienced in the past.

We know that mental health problems are really common in the perinatal period. At least 1 in 5 women are going to experience mental health problems in the perinatal period. For some women, this might be in the form of feeling more worried or anxious about different things in their lives. Others might become low or depressed in mood.  Women do recover from mental health problems in the perinatal period and for a lot of people, that happens when they are able to access some help.  There is a variety of help available. 

Our primary message to you is, you are not alone.

Our team offer specialist perinatal mental health assessments, which focuses on both the needs of mother, baby and family. This will include discussion around options of treatment for women suffering mental illness such as:

• depression
• anxiety
• OCD
• post-traumatic stress disorder
• bipolar affective disorder
• post-partum psychosis.

For women that are planning a pregnancy that have a current mental health problem, we can offer advice alongside your current care package about the kinds of support that could be available to you in a pregnancy and after the birth of your baby. Once you become pregnant, we will often work alongside your current care provider (if you have one) to make sure your changing care needs are met – thinking about you, your baby and your partner/family.

There are lots of resources on the internet about perinatal mental health problems.

The links below are to some trusted sites:

• Mental health in pregnancy | Royal College of Psychiatrists (rcpsych.ac.uk)
• Postnatal depression | Royal College of Psychiatrists (rcpsych.ac.uk)
• Perinatal OCD | Royal College of Psychiatrists (rcpsych.ac.uk)
• Postpartum psychosis | Royal College of Psychiatrists (rcpsych.ac.uk)
• Perinatal and postnatal mental health - Mind