The Maternal Mental Health Alliance (MMHA) is a UK-wide charity and network of over 120 organisations, dedicated to ensuring all women and families impacted by perinatal mental health problems have access to high-quality, compassionate care and support. We bring the maternal mental health community together and make change happen by combining the power of real-life experience with clinical and professional expertise.
Why we exist
Women, babies, and their families are suffering right now. We won’t stop until every woman and family in the UK gets the perinatal mental health care and support they need, before, during and after pregnancy.
How we drive change
We speak with one voice. United by our core aims, we work collectively to maximise impact. We harness our shared expertise, energy and passion to drive the change needed for the mental health needs of women and their families in the perinatal period.
Commitment and collaboration
The MMHA has an active, dynamic, and forward-thinking membership. We strive to work collaboratively to create essential tools and spaces to raise awareness of perinatal mental health problems and help drive the much-needed changes for the mental health needs of women and their families in the perinatal period to be met.
Examples of recent collaborations include:
-
- Unite the Union – a free edition of the Mental Health Nursing Journal dedicated to perinatal mental health
- Royal College of Midwives – a co-hosted event to launch the ‘Parental Emotional Wellbeing & Infant Development’ report, and a summary document focusing on the key highlights and learnings from the event to follow – watch this space!
- Royal College of Nursing – providing regular room hire for members’ meetings
- Refugee Women Connect – working together to highlight the needs of women during Refugee Week e.g. Twitter Q&A
- Lots of support via social media for all MMHA outputs including the most recent Maternal Mental Health in a Pandemic report.
Independent evaluation has demonstrated that in the last 10 years, MMHA campaigning has played a key role in helping secure much-needed changes for women and families impacted by perinatal mental illness.
Who we are
The MMHA was founded in 2011 by people with lived experience and organisations who understood the impact of perinatal mental problems and had a commitment to improving the lives of women and their families. Today, we have evolved into a powerful and collaborative alliance supported by a small, dedicated staff team and board.
Our values
Our staff and trustees are guided by a strong set of core principles.
Our history
The Alliance has worked together for 10 years with a shared determination to improve mental health support for women and families across the UK.
Find out more about our history and MMHA’s impact.
Our funders
With thanks to our funders, Comic Relief, The National Lottery, the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, the Garfield Weston Foundation, and the Mental Health Foundation for making our work possible.
We would also like to say a huge thank you to one of our founding members, Action on Postpartum Psychosis, for hosting the MMHA before we became a registered charity in 2018.
