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MATERNAL MENTAL HEALTH
What is maternal mental health?
You may have heard the terms ‘perinatal mental health’ and ‘maternal mental health’ used interchangeably. Both refer to mental health during pregnancy and up to two years after giving birth. The word "peri" comes from Latin and means "around," while "natal" means "birth". We appreciate not everyone’s symptoms are the same nor is this black or white.
Brighter Skies Advice
The biggest piece of advice we could give is trusting your gut instincts, if something just doesn’t sit right or feels off - even if you can’t explain it, book an appointment with your GP or ask to see your midwife (depending where you are up to in your new parent journey).
We called our local Crisis line as it was over the weekend when we reached out, and this opened the doors for us into the Perinatal Team.
Maternal Mental Health Alliance
They have a bank of knowledge to tap into here, we can highly recommend their content to have a look through and getting to know signs and symptoms.
Most people have heard of postnatal depression, or PND, but depression can also occur during pregnancy. Other perinatal mental illnesses include anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), Postpartum / Perinatal Psychosis and eating disorders.
Do you have other resources to recommend? Please get in touch so we can add them
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