Posted By: Mimi Wilsher
19th February 2025
3 minute read
The WRDA’s young mums MAS (Maternal Advocacy and Support) project provides maternal mental health support to women aged 16-25 who are pregnant and/ or who have children up to the age of three. We are based in Northern Ireland and currently our groups are based in Women’s Centre’s in Belfast and Greater Belfast areas.
We are aware that being a young mum comes with a unique set of challenges, so we wanted to create a conversation-based support group for young women where they could make positive friendships and support each other on their motherhood journey. As well as peer support, we planned to offer a range of activities and workshops to support our young mums’ mental health, promote emotional wellbeing, and encourage personal development. The development of this project was underpinned by the Perinatal Peer Support Principles to ensure the young mums’ experience within the group is:
1. Safe – fosters a culture of trust and empathy.
2. Accessible and inclusive – takes proactive steps to ensure equal access.
3. Complementary – collaborate with clinical services but distinct.
4. Informed – design and delivery led by people with lived experience.
5. Reciprocal – enable peer supporters to benefit from their involvement.
We also wanted to listen to the young mums about their lived experiences and gather their views to advocate for service improvement and map out a vision for change. For those who wanted to be more involved, we decided to create further opportunities to contribute to WRDA’s campaigning efforts and train up as group leaders.
Many of the young women who come to our group have high levels of maternal mental health needs. Most have adverse childhood experiences and encountered stressful and traumatic life events as young women.
Research tells us that young mothers aged 25 and under have been identified as being at particularly high risk of experiencing mental illness in the perinatal period, with postnatal depression up to twice as prevalent in teenage mothers compared to those over 20. The MBRRACE report has also highlighted an increase in teenage maternal suicide in recent years.
With all this in mind, we’ve achieved our goal of offering a safe place, with free childcare on site, where young women can connect, have a breather, and focus on their own needs. In fact, for most of our young mums MAS is the only group activity they attend, as they report that going to mums and tots/baby classes in their communities is just too much for them; they feel judged and overwhelmed.
An observation I have made while working with young mums is a gap in independent individual advocacy support for young mothers whose children are on the child protection register or in Care Proceedings. They are navigating these extremely stressful and emotive systems without someone on their side to ensure they understand the process and support them to be a meaningful part of the dialogue and decision making. Young mums are expressing to me that they feel completely confused, dismissed and powerless.
We know that early intervention is key when it comes to maternal mental health, and we know the link between maternal mental health and infant mental health. Young Mums MAS is vital for young women with social complexities who are often not picked up by specialist teams and fearful of reaching out for support from statutory services. In supporting these young women in their motherhood journey, and providing opportunities for social connections with peers, we can reduce isolation and loneliness and offer activities and workshops that improve mental health, promote emotional wellbeing and encourage personal development… and, of course, get a nice cup of tea!
Find out more about the projectReceive news and information on how your support is helping, our fundraising activities and ways you can get involved.
