Pregnancy in Mind is our preventative mental health service for expectant parents.
Up to 1 in 5 mums and 1 in 10 dads are thought to experience mental health issues during pregnancy or the year following the birth of their child.
This includes low mood, anxiety or depression.
And it can have a lasting effect on children.
Pregnancy in Mind is our preventative mental health service for expectant parents.
Up to 1 in 5 mums and 1 in 10 dads are thought to experience mental health issues during pregnancy or the year following the birth of their child.
This includes low mood, anxiety or depression.
And it can have a lasting effect on children.
The impact on babies
Stress chemicals produced by women suffering from depression or anxiety can affect their unborn child’s development.
Anxiety and depression during pregnancy can also increase the risk of postnatal (postpartum) depression.
Research has shown that, without treatment, this can disrupt the relationship between new parents and their baby and make it harder for them to provide the best possible care.
Yet perinatal mental health problems often go undetected or untreated.
With services like home visits from nurses and midwives ever more thinly stretched, Pregnancy in Mind is bridging a gap.
And in conjunction with our campaigning, we’re leading the fight for better access to early years support for families.
A range of support
Our Pregnancy in Mind practitioners use a range of approaches including mindfulness, active relaxation and group sessions, which create communities of parents who can support each other through the pregnancy and also after their baby is born.
Dads and partners can be referred to take part in Pregnancy in Mind in their own right too, making the service unique.
Together we can help mums and dads of newborns be the best parents they can be – giving babies the start in life they deserve.
Reaching parents before they hit crisis point
The bond between a baby and their parents is vital.
Those early days are the time when the things babies see, hear and feel have a greater effect on how the brain develops.
A safe and loving environment helps to build healthy brains, while experiencing trauma and abuse is shown to harm brain development, which can lead to challenges later on in life.
That’s why we need to do more to reach those mums and dads who are struggling with their mental health, as early as possible.
There are eight group sessions, which follow these core evidence-based themes:
- Mindfulness meditation
- Active relaxation
- Learning about mental health and coping skills
- Social support
- Developing connection with baby
- Couple and co-parenting relationships
There are also two individual sessions after their baby is born, which focus on hearing how the parents are coping – allowing our practitioners to spot any potential mental health issues early on and refer them for specialist support if needed.
A decade of support
Since launching the service in 2013, our practitioners have worked with more than 3,300 parents, helping to support their children’s development from birth.
Over that time, Pregnancy in Mind has evolved, including adapting the service to offer virtual sessions, making sure we’re reaching as many parents as possible in a way that works for them.
A decade of support
Since launching the service in 2013, our practitioners have worked with more than 3,300 parents, helping to support their children’s development from birth.
Over that time, Pregnancy in Mind has evolved, including adapting the service to offer virtual sessions, making sure we’re reaching as many parents as possible in a way that works for them.
How Pregnancy in Mind helped Sarah
Pregnancy in Mind helped Sarah after a previous ‘missed miscarriage’ left her feeling ‘disconnected’ from her body.
“It's been a transformational anchor through the past two months which has really helped me navigate through some really tough moments in this pregnancy.
"I think that it came at the perfect time for me in terms of giving me some ways to cope with anxiety and also to be part of a safe and trusted network of women who were having similar experiences.
“As someone who finds comfort in knowledge, I was finding it exceedingly difficult to find factual information out there about pregnancy which also resonated with my experience of being very anxious and not enjoying the process.
"The gloss of earth-motherly, smiling women with their perfect hair and smug recipes did not feel like a good fit and definitely had me feeling like I'd fallen at a very early hurdle.
“Being part of this Pregnancy in Mind group really helped to assuage my anxiety, guilt and feelings that I'd got it all wrong.
"It helps that during our work together I had my 20-week scan which was really reassuring, and I also began to feel my baby moving, but I wholeheartedly feel that the Pregnancy in Mind sessions were the key to allowing me to find ways to begin accepting and even enjoying moments of pregnancy as we worked through the programme.”
*Names and identifying features changed to protect identities.
Babies and infants are vulnerable.
Almost 40% of serious case reviews – which take place when a child has died following abuse or neglect – involve a baby who hasn’t reached their first birthday.
Will you help give babies a better start in life?
With your support, mums struggling with depression, or anxieties about being a new parent, can get the help they need to provide sensitive and responsive care to their babies.
Together, we can also be there for the dads and partners who play an important role in their babies’ lives, but who are often excluded from perinatal support.
It means babies can be born to happier families – giving them a better start in life and hope of a brighter future.
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