Black Maternal Mental Health Week UK was launched to raise awareness, highlight disparities, provide resources, and break cultural barriers in maternal mental health for black mothers, and birthing people.
Monday 27th September – Sunday 3rd October 2021. Continue reading Black Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week 2021
A survey¹ by Maternal Mental Health Alliance member, the Birth Trauma Association, has found that the majority of people aren’t aware that birth can cause post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The survey, carried out to mark Birth Trauma Awareness Week, found that, while 78% of people were aware that war could cause PTSD, only 40% knew that it was possible to experience PTSD as a result of giving birth. Continue reading Only four in 10 people are aware that birth can lead to post-traumatic stress disorder, survey finds
This year, Infant Mental Health Awareness Week will run between 7-12th June.
Infant Mental Health Awareness Week takes place every year in June to highlight the importance of babies’ emotional wellbeing and development.
The theme for this year’s Infant Mental Health Awareness Week is ‘including infants in children and young people’s mental health’.
Join in the discussion on Twitter using #IMHAW21 and #IncludingInfants.
The Maternal Mental Health Alliance is a proud member of the First 1001 Days Movement.
Find out more about Infant Mental Health Awareness Week on their website.
In recognition of Maternal Mental Health Awareness week and today’s ‘Paternal Mental Health’ theme, I wanted to put a virtual pen to paper and share my experience. Continue reading Perinatal Mental Health: a partner’s perspective
Monday 3rd – Sunday 9th May 2021
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.
Continue reading Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week 2021
The UK’s first annual awareness week highlighting black women’s maternal mental health.
Monday 28th September – Sunday 4th October. Continue reading MMHA member The Motherhood Group launches Black Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week 2020
On World Maternal Mental Health Day, the time is right to reflect on the progress made in Scotland to protect pregnant women, new mums and their babies during the perinatal period.
While there have been encouraging signs of progress following the establishment of the perinatal managed clinical network and the perinatal and infant mental health programme board, the levels of specialist provision still falls short in most parts of the country, meaning right now, women and families still face a postcode lottery.
Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week is a week-long campaign dedicated to talking about mental illness during and after pregnancy.
It’s all about raising public and professional awareness of perinatal mental illness, advocating for women affected by it, and helping them access the information, care and support they need to recover. Continue reading Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week 2020
This week is Mental Health Awareness Week, which is focussing on stress and its detrimental consequences on mental health.
At the Maternal Mental Health Alliance we recognise how stress can negatively affect parents’ wellbeing and increase the risk of mental illness. When parents are feeling stressed, it also makes it harder for them to consider, reflect on and respond to their babies’ needs. And a huge body of research tells us that sensitive and responsive care is an essential ingredient in babies’ healthy brain development.
The research carries positive messages too. The results of stress are not inevitable and there are things we can all do to manage stress and reduced its impact. Furthermore, evidence shows that a good quality relationship between parents and babies after birth can mitigate the impact of early stress on babies’ development, which is why services that support healthy parent-infant relationships are so critically important. Read our blog on stress in pregnancy here.
This week is Mental Health Awareness Week, which is focussing on stress and its detrimental consequences on mental health.
Here Sally Hogg, Strategic Lead for Mums and Babies in Mind, writes about how managing stress isn’t just a responsibility for individual mums – society needs to think about how we reduce stress on mothers.
At the Maternal Mental Health Alliance we recognise how stress can negatively affect parents’ wellbeing and increase the risk of mental illness. When parents are feeling stressed, it also makes it harder for them to consider, reflect on and respond to their babies’ needs. And a huge body of research tells us that sensitive and responsive care is an essential ingredient in babies’ healthy brain development.
Stress in pregnancy is associated with premature birth and low birth weight. We now know that maternal stress affects babies’ development antenatally too: Research found that babies whose mums had higher levels of stress in pregnancy were more likely to have mental health problems themselves in adolescence.
The research carries positive messages too. The results of stress are not inevitable and there are things we can all do to manage stress and reduced its impact. Furthermore, evidence shows that a good quality relationship between parents and babies after birth can mitigate the impact of early stress on babies’ development, which is why services that support healthy parent-infant relationships are so critically important.
