More psychological support needed in pregnancy

It has been recommended that maternity services should include more mental health support to pregnant women and new mothers.

The British Psychology Society (BPS) has called for medium sized units with 3000+ births per year to have a full term clinical psychologist, and a part time consultant psychologist. The recommendations have been made following reports that mental health problems can impact the mother’s wellbeing, as well as the emotional, social and cognitive development of the child.

Mental health problems can affect one in five women during pregnancy, or in the year after birth, with women often preferring psychological support over medication.  

The BPS president, Professor Peter Kinderman commented that “This new briefing paper shows that poor perinatal mental health is a widespread and expensive problem and that perinatal psychologists have the specialist skills to help in ways new mothers appreciate, transforming lives at this very important time for families”.

Read the full article here.