Is ‘self-care’ really the answer?

Renae Hayward, Senior Health Promotion Officer, Statewide Perinatal and Infant Mental

Health Program

As someone with a job promoting wellbeing to parents with new babies, I have talked a lot about

self-care. At one time, our team even had a range of merchandise with the slogan: ‘Care for your

baby by caring for yourself’. It was very popular with health professionals and consumers alike.

But a few recent online articles, along with my own experience as a mother, have made me

question – is ‘self-care’ really the answer?

In March of this year, Nakita Valerio went viral on social media when she posted, ‘Shouting “self-

care” at people who actually need “community care” is how we fail people.’

She made this post a few days after the Christchurch mosque shootings, a time when she was

exhausted from life generally and grieving with her Muslim community. In an online article

subsequently, she has expanded on this statement, saying, ‘What I needed wasn’t a bubble bath,

but for someone to come over, help with the dishes, order some food while they watched my kids

and to leave me alone to process and grieve.’

It was my postnatal doula who first drew my attention to these wise words. She shared Ms

Valerio’s article on Facebook, clearly seeing its relevance to the mothers of all backgrounds who

follow her page. It certainly resonated with me.

As another article notes, ‘At the heart of all this [self-care] advice is the same operational

principle: If you want to feel better, you need to do the labour yourself, for yourself.’

And sometimes people simply aren’t in a position to add self-care to their extensive to do lists –

mothers included.

So if we promoted ‘community care’ instead, what does it look like?

For me, in those early postpartum days, it was having a doula come to my house and look after me

while I concentrated on feeding and loving my baby. When my baby was older, it was leaning on

my mothers’ group friends and having them lean on me in return.

In a recent blog post for Mental Health Week, Playgroup WA CEO, David Zarb, highlighted that

having a strong support network is key to managing if things get difficult, and attending playgroups

is another way parents can make those social connections.

‘What you do with families and children and your local playgroup is at the frontline of positive

mental health for you and your children…’ Zarb said. ‘[Playgroup] is helping keep people well and

helping when they are not… it is the people around you that really make a difference.’

This is why Women and Newborn Health Service is an Act-Belong-Commit partner and why staff

encourage new parents to be actively involved in and belong to community groups, like playgroups

or the mothers’ groups offered by child health nurses. It is also why during Perinatal Anxiety and

Depression Awareness (PANDA) Week, the State Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Program

encourage service providers across the state to bring mothers together for activities like pram

walks, which have the potential to forge ongoing friendships and foster community care.

Issue 64

October 2019

Perinatal and Infant Mental Health News and Events

Newsletter

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Australasian Marcé Society Conference summary

Lea Davidson, Education and Training Officer, Statewide Perinatal and Infant Mental Health

Program

The Australasian Marcé Society Conference was held on 10-12 October 2019 at the Pan Pacific

Perth with the conference theme of ‘Love and Fear: Becoming a Person within a Family’.

I had the pleasure of conducting one of the Mother and Baby Unit tours taking a group of interstate delegates on a tour of both the King Edward Memorial Hospital and the Fiona Stanley Hospital Mother and Baby Units. Staff at both units provided a warm welcome and conducted a tour of their facility before giving a short presentation on commonly presenting problems, exclusion criteria, and average length of stay, staff mix and organisational pressures.

On the return trip to the Pan Pacific Hotel participants were treated to a drive along the coast taking in the views of Port, Leighton and Cottesloe Beaches. This set the tone for the following days and I enjoyed running into these delegates throughout the next two days of the conference.

My lasting impression of this conference was the impact of trauma from an individual to a community perspective. Emeritus Professor Ron de Kloet spoke of the connection between cortisol and chronic diseases once again highlighting the cost of undetected mental health concerns.

From talking with colleagues both during and after the conference, it also seems there were some fascinating presentations in the concurrent sessions that I unfortunately did not get the opportunity to see, including one on persisting depressive and traumatic symptoms in fathers following poor fetal, neonatal and maternal outcome, presented by Dr Alka Kothari from Queensland. Another presentation of note was given by Dr Susan Roberts, also from Queensland, on sensory patterns, mental health and parenting outcomes in mothers admitted to a mother-baby unit.

If you are looking for further professional development now that the Australasian Marcé Conference is over, you may be interested to note that the World Association for Infant Mental Health Congress will be held in Brisbane in June next year and the call for abstracts is open until 27 October 2019. This conference promises to be a fascinating four-day extravaganza, so mark your diaries and stay tuned for more information coming soon!

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Health promotion update

Renae Hayward, Senior Health Promotion Officer, Statewide Perinatal and Infant Mental

Health Program

Welcome!

Vanessa Bobongie has joined Renae Hayward in the Senior Health Promotion Officer role,

working Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Welcome Vanessa!

Event – PANDA Week 2019

Perinatal Anxiety and Depression Awareness (PANDA) Week is 10 – 16 November 2019 (that’s

only four weeks away!).

Already, 30 people across WA have expressed an interest in hosting an event or activity in

acknowledgement of the week. For some, this will mean hosting a morning tea or pram walk, for

others, it’s more about raising awareness among work colleagues and via social media.

If you are interested in receiving a PANDA Week planning pack, please email

spimhp@health.wa.gov.au. The pack contains information to help you plan your activity and

order resources, as well as links to useful online information from organisations such as

beyondblue, PANDA and Act-Belong-Commit.

Resource numbers are limited, so if you’re interested in obtaining some for an event, get your

order in soon!

And don’t forget – we’d love to know how your event goes! The next issue of this newsletter is out

in December, so feel free to submit an article to us to share your success with our readers.

Dates for your diary:

18 October - submit resource order form

- register your event for our online calendar

10-16 November - PANDA Week

6 December - deadline for submitting PANDA Week articles for December newsletter

Resource – ‘Finding Help’ booklet

Some of you would know that our very popular resource ‘Finding Help Before and After Baby

Arrives’ is currently undergoing a redesign and reprint. It will have slightly different look and

format, but contain the same fabulous collation of services and help lines that are so important

during the perinatal period.

If you are interested in ordering copies of

the newly printed resource, please email

spimhp@health.wa.gov.au. We will let

you know when the booklet is finally

available and let you know how to place

your order.

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New COPE YouTube series

Adapted from COPE Health Professionals Update – September 2019

Launched in September, COPE now has an exciting new YouTube series to provide expectant

and new parents with information and insights into the often unknown and unspoken truths that

come with parenthood.

Hosted by clinical psychologist, Amy Felman, and Dr Nicole Highet, the series entitled, The Mum

Drum, provides an innovative approach to conveying parents' lived experience, through engaging

and honest conversations with men and women about their journey into parenthood.

The first three episodes of the series are now live:

• Epidode 1: About The Mum Drum - Why COPE developed The Mum Drum and what this

series is all about.

• Episode 2: The Mother's Group - Seven women are interviewed about their expectations

versus realities of becoming a mum and what advice they would give others.

• Episode 3: My real birth experience - A candid interview with Rachel and Jayson Watts

about their birth experience with their first child.

The in-depth interviews provide health professionals and parents alike with valuable insights into

the current perceptions, expectations and experiences faced by parents today.

You can watch the episodes or listen to the podcasts on the COPE website.

Upcoming episodes in this series cover topics including:

• Living with antenatal and postnatal depression and anxiety

• The impacts of shame and stigma on help-seeking

• Managing the work-family-life juggle

• The impact of having a family on relationships

You can also sign up to be notified of future episodes as they are released.

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New articles and resources from PANDA

Adapted from PANDA e-newsletter – October 2019

After talking with many new mums on the PANDA National Helpline

about their struggles with medications and breastfeeding, PANDA

have now published an article on their website covering many

frequently asked questions and common concerns about the subject.

Alongside this, one of PANDA’s Community Champions has also

shared her experience with deciding what to do about taking

medication while breastfeeding.

You can find both these articles on the PANDA website.

And with the countdown on to PANDA Week 2019, make sure you

check out the PANDA digital toolkit and PANDA resources. There

are some great downloads for use in social media and a new poster

featuring this year’s theme, ‘Let’s Get Real’ (pictured, right).

New wellbeing data available

Adapted from Commissioner’s Update – October 2019, Commissioner for Children and

Young People

The Indicators of Wellbeing is a practical resource that provides a single, collated overview of

the wellbeing of WA’s children and young people and will help government and non-government

organisations working with WA children and young people to identify what is working, and where

changes in policies and practices may be needed.

The second data set – Healthy and connected – was released in late September and includes

important data on young people’s physical and mental health, developmental screening and

connection to community and support.

It joins the first data set – Learning and participating – which was released in May 2019 and

provides data on participation in child care, school attendance, supportive relationships at school,

academic achievement and transitioning from school.

The third data set – Safe and supported – is due to be released in late 2019.

For those working in perinatal and infant mental health, the data for Age group 0 to 5 years may

be of particular interest. Some details are included below.

Positive trends (0-5 years):

Most families engage in learning-related activities with their children

Most WA children are enrolled in kindergarten

Areas of concern (0-5 years):

More than 20 per cent of WA children are developmentally vulnerable

Many children in the Perth metropolitan area did not receive the 12-month (47%) and two-

year (71.1%) child health checks in 2017-18.

Less than 50 per cent of children under two years old in the Perth metropolitan area are

being assessed for social-emotional difficulties.

Visit the Commissioner for Children and Young People’s website for more news or subscribe to

receive the latest updates via email.

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Five minutes with… Jo Steel

Joanna Steel, Population Health Coordinator, WA Country Health Service – Great Southern

How long have you worked to support perinatal mental health in your community?’

I first started working in perinatal mental health promotion five years ago when promoting Perinatal

Depression and Anxiety Awareness Week, and the role has grown from there to trying to promote

perinatal mental health all year round.

What is your current role?

I work in the Great Southern Health Promotion team, and work across a number of areas including

local government public health planning, consumer engagement and communications, and early

years. With regards to perinatal mental health, much of my current work is with the new mothers’

groups run by our Child Health Nurses; I talk to the mums about perinatal depression and anxiety,

and things they can do to protect and strengthen their mental health. On an ongoing basis, I’m

working with professionals who engage with new and expectant parents to find ways of getting

messages out.

What do you like about your work?

I really enjoy the breadth of what we do in health promotion – both the areas in which we work,

and the people we get to engage with. There’s so much evidence about the importance of the

early years and the impact of parental wellbeing that it’s great to be able to contribute to, and

support, the work being done.

What has been the most rewarding experience of your work?

I love the conversations that we all have in the groups after I’ve spoken to the mums, particularly

when you see how they are all willing to support each other. I became a mum myself just over 18

months ago, and that’s had an impact on how I engage with new mums and dads. Before

parenthood, I was very much communicating best-practise guidelines and recommendations; now,

I’m communicating the same messages but with a healthy dose of reality weaved in about how

they might actually look in practice. It’s definitely reinforced for me the importance of what we’re

doing.

What inspired you to work in this area?

I was looking up data to inform a social and emotional

wellbeing strategic plan for our region and the statistics

really spoke for themselves about perinatal mental health

being an area of need. We have brilliant community

midwives and child health nurses, and their receptiveness

to working with us was very encouraging.

What do you hope to see for the future?

I’d love to see the recognition of prevention in health

continue to grow. In terms of my work, I’m really hoping that

our local partnerships keep developing so that we can

increase support for expectant and new parents across our

region. Image (above): Jo Steel

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About this newsletter

Who can contribute?

This newsletter was created to celebrate successes and share information among professionals

working in the fields of perinatal and infant mental health in Western Australia. In the interests of

information-sharing, submission of articles and other relevant content are invited from external

agencies, including those from the non-government sector and other Australian states. Please

note, however, that the Statewide Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Program (SPIMHP) reserves

the right to maintain editorial control, including the ability to decide the final content to be published

and/or making editorial changes to content submitted.

If you would like more information about the submission process, please contact SPIMHP as

indicated below.

Contact information

This newsletter was produced by the SPIMHP, Women and Newborn Health Service, Department

of Health WA.

Please direct any queries via the following:

Email: spimhp@health.wa.gov.au

Phone: (08) 6458 1795

Web: www.kemh.health.wa.gov.au/SPIMHP

Accessibility

This newsletter has been designed in a printable format and is circulated to a distribution list via

email. Following distribution, it is made available at www.kemh.health.wa.gov.au/SPIMHP. Upon

request, the newsletter can be made available in alternative formats for a person with a disability.

Copyright

Copyright to this material is vested in the State of Western Australia unless otherwise indicated.

Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review, as

permitted under the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced or re-used

for any purposes whatsoever without written permission of the State of Western Australia.

© Department of Health 2019

Disclaimer

The information presented in this newsletter is provided in good faith as a public service. The

accuracy of any statements made is not guaranteed and it is the responsibility of readers to make

their own enquiries as to the accuracy, currency or appropriateness of any information or advice

provided. Liability for any act or omission occurring in reliance on this document or for any loss,

damage or injury occurring as a consequence of such act or omission is expressly disclaimed.