It is not uncommon for people to experience a range of thoughts and feelings about their pregnancy and about becoming a parent. While this can be a time of great joy, it can also be a stressful time and comes with a range of physical and emotional changes.
For about 1 in 5 people, this time can be associated with a range of mental health problems, for example: depression, anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress, and symptoms such as hearing or seeing things or having unusual beliefs. These problems may have been present at a previous time in your life and may recur in the perinatal period, or it may be that the problems develop for the first time during this period.
The specialist perinatal CMHT works with women who experience mental health problems during and after pregnancy, up until their infant is one years old. The team provides assessment, care and treatment for conditions such as antenatal and postnatal depression, anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, bipolar disorder and postpartum psychosis.
Perinatal services can support you with the following:
- Supporting you to manage and recover from mental health difficulties during the perinatal period.
- Helping you to weigh up the risks and benefits of using medication during pregnancy and breastfeeding.
- Psychological treatments (talking therapies). This can be on an individual basis or in a group.
- Support and advice to help you build both a positive relationship with your baby and a sense of confidence in being a parent.
- Helping you to plan for your care during pregnancy, birth and the postnatal period.
- Working closely with midwives, health visitors, adult mental health teams and GPs to ensure you get the right help at the right time.
- If you are already working with another mental health service, we can work alongside them to ensure you get specialist advice alongside your existing support.
- Supporting you to access specialist inpatient services (mother and baby unit), if this is required.
- Referring you to other services which offer practical help and support for families.
- Giving advice and information about mental health problems to your partner and other family members, if you are OK with this, to help them understand the problems and how best to support you.
Get help
You can usually be referred by any professional involved in your care, such as:
- GP, Midwife,
- Health Visitor,
- Obstetrician,
- Psychiatrist, and/or
- Care co-ordinator (community mental health team)
They will be required to complete a referral form, which is available online:
- Perinatal Community Mental Health Team – nhs.uk website