RCM publishes perinatal mental health roadmap

Strengthening Perinatal Mental Health, the new report from the Royal College of Midwives (RCM), highlights that one in five women will experience mental health issues during pregnancy and up to a year after birth, ranging from anxiety and depression to more significant illness.

For these women, barriers often exist to prevent them from accessing care, including variation in availability of service, care and treatment. These are often worsened by cultural stigma, previous trauma, deprivation and discrimination.

This roadmap outlines recommendations to ensure that women are offered, and can access, the right support at the right time during their perinatal journey. Among the key changes the RCM is calling for to improve perinatal mental health care in the UK are:

• All professionals working with women in the perinatal period have the necessary knowledge and understanding of perinatal mental health.
• Every maternity service has a minimum whole-time equivalent band 7 perinatal specialist midwife.
• All maternity professionals should be equally concerned with mental as well as physical health in pregnancy, childbirth and the postnatal period.

The full roadmap can be found at:

www.rcm.org.uk/media/6976/rcm-perinatal-mental-health-report-2023.pdf