New mothers everywhere, rejoice, for the NHS has your back. And your sanity, apparently. Data released last week shows that 64,000 women accessed specialist perinatal mental health services last year, a rise in demand of 10 per cent compared to 2023. Describing the newly provisioned services as ‘lifesaving’ to perinatal women – the period encompassing pregnancy and one year postpartum– the NHS went on to detail the importance of maternal mental health, adding that it was ‘vital that women did not suffer in silence’ or ‘feel stigmatised’.
Given that suicide is still the leading cause of maternal death in the UK, access to mental health support should be a welcome development
Consequently, perinatal mental health teams are now available in every part of England, offering perinatal women (and, for the first time, those hoping to conceive) access to psychologists, peer support workers and midwives. Headline causes of referrals to the services are reported to be pre- and post-partum depression, OCD and anxiety surrounding birth, known as the appropriately sinister condition, tokophobia.
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