On 13th December 2019, MBRRACE-UK published their latest Confidential Enquiry into Maternal Deaths in the UK and Ireland.
The Saving Lives, Improving Mothers’ Care 2019 report investigates the deaths of women during or up to one year after pregnancy between 2015 and 2017. MBRRACE examines the reasons why each of the women died and what can be done to improve maternity care in the future. Continue reading Maternal suicide still a leading cause of death in first postnatal year
by Katrina Jenkins, Project Manager Families, Children and Young People’s Programmes
The Maternal Mental Health Alliance Conference 2018 is an annual event dedicated to stimulating debate and the sharing of ideas for good practice in the field of perinatal mental health. This exciting event is organised by the Mental Health Foundation on behalf of the Maternal Mental Health Alliance (of which we are a member).
This is how I became involved in this national conference. As Project Manager in the Families, Children and Young People’s Programmes team at the Mental Health Foundation, my role includes the organisation of this year’s Conference.
Each year, the Maternal Mental Health Conference delivers a unique theme which corresponds to pertinent areas of interest in perinatal mental health.
I was fortunate to have been able to attend the conference last year, on the theme of Intergenerational mental health: working with mums and babies in perinatal mental health practice. Along with 250 other delegates, I gained a wealth of learning and deepened my understanding of how a whole-family approach can break the intergenerational cycle of mental health problems.
I am even more excited about the theme for this year’s Maternal Mental Health Conference – Diversity: Understanding and reaching the missing families. This topic is uniquely interesting as it offers an exceptional opportunity to explore important but seldom-heard voices in perinatal mental health. Continue reading Organising the Maternal Mental Health Alliance Conference 2018
Laura Godfrey-Isaacs is an artist, community midwife at King’s College Hospital, London and a project producer for Maternal Journal.
Maternal Journal was created by myself and psychiatrist Professor Carmine Pariante. It is an interdisciplinary collaborative project with Kings College London’s’ Department of Psychological Medicine & Department of Women’s Health, Ovalhouse and The Royal College of Art. Maternal Journal explores the therapeutic potential of journaling as a way to promote wellbeing and positive mental health for pregnant women and new mothers, who have a history of mild to moderate depression and/or anxiety.
Alex Corgier is Scheme Manager of Home-Start Stroud District and Quedgeley in Gloucestershire. In 2017 she ran a perinatal community support project called Mothers in Mind. The project aimed to explore what an ideal model of community support would look like for women experiencing perinatal anxiety and depression from pregnancy up to two years after birth. It addressed the issues of stigma and helped to develop better pathways between IAPT (Improving Access to Psychological Therapies) services and localised community support.
Key lessons from the Mothers In Mind project
Taking the time to collect both qualitative and quantative feedback from local families with lived-experience gave us crucial insight into what works, what works less well, areas that need improvement and the kind of services that women felt needed to be developed or replicated.
Continue reading The mother behind the mask – Mothers In Mind’s holistic community support model
