Perinatal Mental Wellbeing Report
Download (PDF 1.23 MB)Summary of report content
Healthwatch Sutton undertook research into perinatal mental health to support Healthwatch England’s work on this subject. They undertook a survey of 317 people who were pregnant or had had a baby in the last two years or whose partner was pregnant or had a baby in the last two years.
68.8% of respondents had either received ‘not enough’ or ‘not received any’ information about perinatal mental health. 43% of pregnant people stated they had received ‘no information’ compared with 21% for those that had a baby in the last 2 years.
Pregnant people rate their knowledge considerably lower (4.5 out of 10) than those who had a baby in the last 2 years (5.7 out of 10). The largest barriers to accessing help and/or support are: Worrying about other people’s reaction; not knowing how to access support, and anxiety that social service would become involved.
71% of respondents think there is ‘not enough’ support for partners. 32% did not know that partners can suffer from perinatal mental health issues as well.
People’s main source of information is online (24% of all responses), followed by Midwife (19%) and Health Visitor (16%). Respondents would like to access support online (73%), followed by one-to-one (68%).
There were 6 recommendations in the report covering access to information, publicity, support for partners and training for health professionals.