‘Parents and babies simply can’t wait’

The BPS has welcomed findings from a report by the Maternal Mental Health Alliance, written with support from the BPS Faculty of Perinatal Psychology. The Alliance, a UK charity made up of 130 organisations including the BPS, British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, Mind and Family Action, has called for more investment in maternal mental health services.

The perinatal period – the weeks before and after birth – are a particularly vulnerable time and can see numerous mental health difficulties caused by baby loss, traumatic birth, and suicide (the leading cause of death for women between six weeks and one year after giving birth). The report describes how a lack of investment in maternal mental health often means women wait months to receive a mental health assessment, with many services unable to provide support for the most vulnerable women.

The report found that a lack of funding can impact the support that maternal mental health services offer. It found the average wait time for one-to-one therapy following assessment for maternal mental health is 16 weeks, compared to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommendation of 1 month, it also found that just 27 per cent of maternal mental health services support women who had lost their baby due to involvement from social services.

Chair of the BPS Perinatal Psychology Faculty, Dr Camilla Rosan, wrote in the report's foreword that the report highlighted progress but also found many gaps in services. 'Staff are overworked and understandably burning out. And despite our best efforts, women and birthing people are still left waiting for months and months, still jumping through hoops and leaping over mountains to get to the evidence-based care they need and deserve. All the while their symptoms worsening. This is time they don't have – parents and babies simply can't wait.'

Read the Maternal Mental Health Services Progress Report.