Defining essential perinatal mental health care: parent-infant services

What is the role of parent-infant services in providing essential PMH care?

• Some parents may experience difficulties in their relationship with their babies.

• With the right training and support, practitioners across the healthcare system, including health visitors and midwives, can support and strengthen parent-infant relationships.
  

• When mothers access specialist perinatal mental health (PMH) services, the support available needs to include parent-infant relationship support that’s delivered by professionals trained in this area.
  

• Families facing particularly complex challenges in their early relationships but are not under the care of a specialist PMH team need to still be able to access specialised parent-infant relationship support
  

• Parent-infant services should play a role in preventing relationship problems between a parent and their baby and help to solve any issues at an early stage. They should also support early relationship building in all families, not just those experiencing difficulties
  

• Specialised parent-infant relationship teams are multidisciplinary teams led by a highly trained mental health professional, such as a clinical psychologist and/or a child psychotherapist with expertise in supporting early relationships. These teams provide direct therapeutic support to families experiencing severe, complex and/or enduring problems in their early relationships. They should also offer expertise, consultation and supervision to professionals across local healthcare systems.