Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week
This week is Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week, an annual campaign dedicated to talking about mental health problems during and after pregnancy. It’s all about raising public and professional awareness of perinatal mental health problems, advocating for women affected by it, changing attitudes and helping families access the information, care and support they need to get help and ultimately recover.
It’s led by the Perinatal Mental Health Partnership UK, in collaboration with Maternal Mental Health Alliance, who launched the first-ever awareness week back in 2014. I was lucky enough to meet one of its key members, Eve Canavan, a couple of years ago when I reviewed the incredible film Irene’s Ghost and got to hang out with its director, Iain Cunningham, for the evening (a night I’ll never forget!) The film is about Iain’s own Mum and his family’s devastating experience of postnatal psychosis, and Eve was involved in Q&A’s and promotion as an ‘expert,’ having also experienced PND herself.
Many women used the platform to talk about their own experiences and it was a powerful and moving moment. Because, although most had eventually accessed the help they needed and went on to live full lives with their families, it sadly demonstrated that nowhere near enough progress has been made in terms of resources, understanding, financing…. The list goes on.
A study from King’s College London, led by Professor Louise Howard, found that 1 in 4 women suffer with mental health issues during pregnancy, and the National Childbirth Trust (NCT) found that half of those struggling postnatally don’t receive the treatment they need. Then factor in loneliness – it’s proven to contribute to mental health problems, yet a massive 93% of mums report being lonely at some point each week. Then add on stigma, which is preventing Mums from asking for help – or perhaps even confronting that they have a problem at all.
And if all of that wasn’t enough, perinatal mental health problems carry an economic and social long-term cost to society of £8.1 billion for each one-year cohort of births in the UK. So, clearly, the week continues to be an important campaign for millions of women, myself included, and their families, across the country.
The #ShoutieSelfie campaign
As part of the awareness week Happity, the UK’s number one listing and booking website for baby and toddler classes, are once again running their national #ShoutieSelfie campaign, by asking everyone to post a #ShoutieSelfie today, Wednesday 5th of May, to help open up conversations and show their support for parents who might be suffering.
The #ShoutieSelfie campaign, and the Happity platform which aims to reduce loneliness and promote maternal wellness, is the brainchild of maternal mental health campaigner, Emily Tredget, who suffered Post-Natal Depression (PND) and Post-Natal Anxiety (PNA) after the birth of her son in 2015. Finding the bravery to talk about what she had experienced made her realise she was not alone. And this helped her on the road to recovery.
“This year more than any before #ShoutieSelfie is so important. We are hearing daily of parents struggling with their mental health, and given the impact this can have not only on them, but also on their family over their lifetime too, we need to ensure all parents know they are not alone and that they can get support, even during this really difficult time.”
Happity has been instrumental in getting baby & toddler classes running again safely, and Emily was even nominated alongside Marcus Rashford and others for the first Parliamentary Award for “Petition Campaign of the Year” for Happity’s work supporting new parents during the Pandemic. Bloody amazing!
“If you know 5 parents – chances are that one of them is struggling with a mental health issue. Too many mums keep their mental health struggles hidden. Happity launched #ShoutieSelfie to end the stigma. We are asking parents to share a selfie of them shouting to show others that they hear them, they support them and to let them know they are not alone.”
So – are you ready to shout?
What a great post and this is something that does need to be talked about, I will mention this to a few mums I know who could find this useful
this is a wonderful article. So many suffer, but it is wonderful it is being addressed and people can start to reach out and not suffer in silence.
What a good campaign, anything that raises awareness around mental health around pregnancy and child birth is a hit with me, having suffered from late-onset PND after my twins were born. Mich x
ShoutieSelfie sounds like a really good campaign to get people talking again and creating more awareness on mental health
This is such an important subject to raise awareness of. Maternal mental health doesn’t get talked about anywhere near as much as it should be.
I think its so important to keep the conversation going and make sure women (and everyone else) know that suffering with poor mental health isn’t taboo and that they can talk about it and ask for help x