Maternal mental health awareness

By Julie Griffiths on 02 May 2018 Maternal Mental health Perinatal Mental Health

The third World Maternal Mental Health Day (WMMHD) is taking place today (2 May).

WMMHD is a dedicated day to raising awareness of maternal mental health issues and improving the quality of care for all women across the globe experiencing all types of perinatal mental health disorders.

It coincides with the second UK Maternal Mental Health Matters Week (30 April to 6 May), which is coordinated by the Perinatal Mental Health Partnership UK.

The theme for the week is ‘Support for all’ with a focus on enabling all families affected by perinatal illness to access the information and help they require for recovery.

The Maternal Mental Health Alliance (MMHA) is organising interactive Facebook Live sessions throughout the week with dedicated days to different topics relating to perinatal mental health.

To get involved with the week you can use #maternalMHmatters on social media to share your events, stories, facts or research.

There is a photo challenge on social media run by The Butterfly Mother and Lotus Petal Family Support each day during the week using the hashtag #pmhpphoto.

Another photo campaign #ShoutieSelfie is being run by @MummyLinksApp and encourages users to upload ‘shouting selfies’ to ‘shout out’ awareness for maternal mental health.

The UK's maternal mental health services have been in the headlines recently following the new maps released by the MMHA that show where the gaps in service provision are across the UK.

The maps reveal that pregnant women and new mothers in a quarter (24%) of the UK still have no access to specialist perinatal mental health services. Read more here.