Maternal Mental Health Matters Awareness Week 2021

Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week 2021

When is Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week?

Monday 3rd – Sunday 9th May 2021

What is Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week?

Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week is a week-long 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 recover.

Who is it organised by?

The week is organised and led by MMHA member the Perinatal Mental Health Partnership UK (PMHP UK), who launched the first-ever UK Maternal Mental Health Matters Awareness Week in 2014.

PMHP UK is a small group of individuals, including women with lived experience, who came together to raise awareness of maternal mental health. They recently welcomed three new members: the Roshni 2 Project and fellow MMHA members The Motherhood Group and Prosperity’s.

What is this year’s theme?

This year’s theme is ‘Journeys to Recovery’.

The pandemic has dramatically changed the way services are delivered. In response to their survey about this year’s theme, PMHP UK received a huge number of requests to highlight how mums and families can seek support during this unusual time, alongside detailing the individual routes to recovery. 

PMHP UK will provide a supportive platform for families and signpost them to vital resources and safe support which is what people need most at this time. The focus will be on ensuring parents feel well informed and supported at a time when anxiety is heightened for so many.

As ever, resources shared during the week will be available afterwards for all.

Daily themes

Each day will be themed and have its own unique hashtag:

Monday 3rd May - What is maternal mental health?
An overview of the different mental health problems that can affect women in the perinatal period.

Hashtag: #pmhpwhatismaternalmh

Tuesday 4th May - Reaching out for Support
Support can be wide ranging from advice and help from health care professionals, medication, therapy, help from the voluntary sector and safe peer support.
Specifically, the focus will be on alternative support options within the COVID-19 period.

PMHP UK are also encouraging charities, local peer support groups and services to share their details on social media so families know what support is available across the UK. This could include details of the service, contact information, the areas they cover, information on safeguarding policies, training and supervision they have in place for staff and volunteers.

Hashtag: #pmhpreachingoutforsupport

Wednesday 5th May - World Maternal Mental Health Day
PMHP UK’s theme for the day will be the ‘Global Perinatal Positivity Pot’ focusing on how we work together to remove barriers to services so all families who need services can access them and share resources from across the world.
Globally, the theme will be ‘Let’s invest’ with a call to action for investment and equity in maternal mental health care.

Hashtag: #pmhpglobalppp

Thursday 6th May - Support for friends and family
What support is available for friends and family of those who are experiencing maternal mental illness?
Hashtag: #pmhplookingafteryouandyours
Friday 7th May - Your Journeys to Recovery
The end of the week will look at recovery and how different it can look for everyone, but with a strong reminder that recovery is possible.

PMHP UK are encouraging people with professional and lived experience to share articles, blogs and vlogs about recovery, looking ahead to the future and self-care.

Hashtag: #pmhpyourjourneystorecovery

Saturday 8th May - Paternal Mental Health
Hashtag: #pmhppaternalmh
Sunday 9th May - Reflections
The final day will be spent resharing and amplifying the work of the perinatal community and all they’re doing to support women and families.

Online activities

PMHP UK has organised a packed rota of online activities, including Facebook Lives and Twitter chats. For a full list, visit perinatalmhpartnership.com.

Join in

  • Follow PMHP UK on social media:
  • Use the #journeystorecovery and #maternalmhmatters hashtags on social media when referring to the week and the daily specific hashtags if relating to the daily theme
  • Tag PMHP UK in any posts during the week
  • Highlight what your organisation/charity/support group does to help families affected by perinatal mental illness.

Media requests

PMHP UK are more than happy to support media requests and to promote activities for the week! Contact them via perinatalmhpartnership@gmail.com.