Maternity mental health
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Healthwatch Telford and Wrekin was approached by the Local Maternity System (LMS) to carry out a project around Maternity Mental Health awareness and support in Telford and Wrekin, to assist the new Perinatal Mental Health team that would be in place from September 2019. The project also considered how beneficial it would be to implement this new team within the community.
Key findings included: implementing the new Perinatal Mental Health team within the community would be beneficial to mothers and their partners who find it difficult to talk in clinical settings, also highlighting the importance of communication between new parents and healthcare professionals; there is stigma around mental health, with mothers and partners feeling they could not discuss their mental health or wellbeing due to fear of being judged, or fear their child may be taken away; appropriate information, advice and guidance was needed for new parents, especially around medication; people felt there was a lack of support groups for new parents experiencing mental health challenges in the local area.
Based on the findings, Healthwatch Telford and Wrekin made a number of recommendations for the Local Maternity System.