This week, 200 organisations will come together to highlight infant mental health week. The theme of the week is ‘Begin Before Birth’, which emphasises supporting a healthy pregnancy experience for expectant parents as a key opportunity to ensuring the best possible start in life for every child.
By the time a child turns three years old, the foundations for all learning and relationships will have been formed, with their brain development during this time critical to future success at school and in life. The 2.4 million babies who will be born in the UK before 2020 represent our future leaders, thinkers and innovators – it is vitally important we give them strong foundations right from the start, with everyday physical and emotional experiences they have with parents, families, caregivers and communities contributing a crucial part of those foundations.
Key areas of pregnancy which continue to require future support are supporting the relationship between couples, improved antenatal assessment and classes and improved workplace culture.
Alain Gregoire, Chair of the Maternal Mental Health Alliance, says: “The Maternal Mental Health Alliance welcomes the focus on pregnancy for this year’s Infant Mental Health Awareness Week. It is so important for us all to understand the sensitivity of the baby, both during pregnancy and after, to relationships in the family and to the mother’s mental wellbeing.”
Further information can be found on the web and social media pages below.
1001 Critical Days Manifesto – http://www.1001criticaldays.co.uk/sites/default/files/1001%20days_oct16_1st.pdf
Building great Britons – http://www.pipuk.org.uk/news/appg-conception-age-2-first-1001-days