Perinatal Mental Health and Emotional Wellbeing in Pregnancy

Perinatal Mental Health and Emotional Wellbeing in Pregnancy

It is part of routine maternity care for all women and birthing people to be asked about their emotional wellbeing at every appointment. This is an important part of maternity care because many women and birthing people can experience changes in their emotions during pregnancy and this can be entirely normal, however, for some this can feel difficult to experience. Some women and birthing people will begin a pregnancy with a pre-existing mental health diagnoses and require support during their pregnancy journey.

There are dedicated teams in both maternity units at Bedfordshire Hospitals to support those who are experiencing mental health difficulties during pregnancy. Perinatal mental health midwives, advanced practitioners and consultant obstetricians with additional expertise in mental health during pregnancy are all available to provide evidence based assistance and advice throughout, including with mental health medication. Contact can be made with these teams through your community midwife, or by requesting it during any admission to the maternity wards.

We also have emotional wellbeing midwives at each site who are part of the OCEAN team providing mental health support to those who have experienced birth trauma or loss.

The hospital teams work very closely with a number of external services that can provide more extensive and specialist advice during pregnancy for women with certain mental health diagnoses or symptoms, and we may feel it is appropriate to refer you to one of these teams. We will always discuss this referral with you first to identify whether you feel it would be beneficial.