Hey, lets talk about perinatal mental health

Emma Jane Sasaru

Birth Trauma Trust and Perinatal Mental Health Network

Loving Baby

What is Perinatal mental?

• Perinatal mental health refers to a woman’s mental health/wellbeing during pregnancy and the first year after birth. This includes mental illness existing before she becomes pregnant, or that develops for the first time in pregnancy, or in the postnatal period after birth.

• Examples of perinatal mental illness include antenatal depression, postnatal depression, anxiety, perinatal obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), postpartum psychosis and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). These illnesses can be mild, moderate or severe, requiring different kinds of care or treatment.

Women from all parts of society can be affected by Perinatal Mental Illness

Factors associated with increased risk of perinatal mental illness

• Pervious history/ family history of mental illness

• lone parent

• Poor family relationships

• low levels of social support

• recent adverse or stressful life events

• socio-economic disadvantage

• teenage pregnancy

• early emotional trauma/childhood abuse

• unwanted pregnancy

Estimated numbers nationally of women affected by Perinatal

Mental Health

NSPCC

20% women

1/10 women develop PND

Women can be affected by theirbirth experience.

40% report traumatic birth

Suicide is the biggest cause of death for women during pregnancy and first year after birth.

Centre for Mental Health

Asking for help can be hard

Didn’t know who could help

Families worry about stigma

Cost Implications

Centre for Mental Health

Costs apply to both mother and baby

Dads/ Partners suffer too

We must do better?

Signs of PND

• a persistent feeling of sadness and low mood

• lack of enjoyment and loss of interest in the wider world

• lack of energy and feeling tired all the time

• trouble sleeping at night and feeling sleepy during the day

• difficulty bonding with your baby

• withdrawing from contact with other people

• problems concentrating and making decisions

• frightening thoughts – for example, about hurting your baby

Signs of Postpartum Psychosis

• Excited, elated, or ‘high’.• Depressed, anxious, confused, excessively irritable or

changeable in mood, loss of touch with reality (mania)• Strange beliefs that could not be true (delusions).• Hearing, seeing, feeling or smelling things that are not there

(hallucinations).• Being excessively more talkative, sociable.• Having a very busy mind or racing thoughts.• Feeling very energetic and like ‘super-mum’ or agitated and

restless.• Having trouble sleeping, or not feeling the need to sleep.• Behaving in a way that is out of character or out of control.• Feeling paranoid or suspicious of people’s motives.• Feeling that things are connected in special ways or that

Perinatal PTSD• Feelings of intense fear, helplessness and/or terror.

• Re-experiencing of the event by intrusive memories, flashbacks and/or nightmares.

• The individual will usually feel distressed, anxious or panicky when exposed to anything, which remind them of the event.

• Avoidance of anything that reminds them of the trauma. This can include talking about it, the place where the trauma happened or people that may have been involved in the trauma. (such as hospitals, doctors, healthcare professionals)

• Difficulties with sleeping, concentrating and daily activities.

• Feeling angry, irritable or hyper-vigilant or jumpy and easily startled.

• Panic attacks, anxiety and depression.

• They may feel detached, alone and have a sense of something bad may happen to them or their loved ones at any time.

Impact of Perinatal Mental Health• Emotional wellbeing of the whole family.

• Bonding, attachment, feeding and caring for baby, day to day life.

• Relationships partner, wider family and friends.

• Infant brain development/long term issues for child emotionally/ behaviorally

• Life threatening

• Impacts other services acute, primary, public.

• Cost of perinatal mental health UK each year £8.1 Billion

My Girls and Me• Mental Health can

affect anyone• No previous mental

health issues• Unable to access

support• Impact is

devastating and long lasting

Video

What did you struggle with?

“However pragmatic you are, it is very

demanding being anew parent.”

Robert Winston

We all need to work together to support families

Maternal mental health alliance

What can you do?Think of ways in your role you can support families.

Compassion

Stigma Awareness

Support

Signpost

ing

Information

Safeguarding

Kindness

Listen

Support Matters

Unfold your

Wings

Resources

• Perinatal Mental Health Toolkit -http://www.rcgp.org.uk/clinical-and-research/toolkits/perinatal-mental-health-toolkit.aspx

• Maternal Mental Health Alliance -http://maternalmentalhealthalliance.org/

• Centre for Mental Health -https://www.centreformentalhealth.org.uk/maternal-mental-health

• Everyone’s Business - http://everyonesbusiness.org.uk/

• MIND -http://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/tips-for-everyday-living/parenting-with-a-mental-health-problem/#.WJDrq7aLSb8

Families Matter

Loving Baby

Thank You

Emma Jane Sasaru

BirthTraumaTrust.org

Unfoldyourwings.co.uk

Perinatal Mental Health Network

Follow me on Twitter:

@ESasaruNHS @unfoldURwings @PNMHnetwork

Facebook: unfoldyourwings / birthtraumatrust

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