Talking about mental health support during and after pregnancy
WCA’s Healthwatch project have been interviewing Mums and birthing parents in Wandsworth to find out how local parents experience mental health support inside healthcare services, before, during and after birth.
“It’s not an easy thing to talk about, and we hear from only a sample of local people. It’s important to start more conversations about this though and make it safe for people to speak up.
For example, 64 people shared experiences in our first survey on perinatal mental health in 2022. We found 92% of participants identified as White. As the 2021 census found 67.8% of residents are White, we saw an opportunity in 2023 to build partnerships with community groups to hear more from groups that were under-represented in our study last time.” – Sarah, Healthwatch Wandsworth Lead
13 women were interviewed in an informal conversation to find out compassionately, ‘what was your experience like?’ We found 9/13 participants hadn’t sought support for mental health or talk about their problems at all in their care. Most women told us that they didn’t know where to start looking for support.
“There was none… [information about emotional wellbeing] None of the doctors actually mentioned any emotional well-being or anything like that.” – quote from one participant
The report explores so many interesting findings about both positive and negative experiences of health and care services, and suggestions from our participants to make sure people are well supported included:
- Having someone to talk to who isn’t your partner
- Social café style spaces supporting parents
- Sharing more strategies and techniques for coping with newborn babies during pregnancy
The Healthwatch Wandsworth team have been and will continue talking with local maternity services to feedback our findings and discuss opportunities for better support for local people. Read more about services and help on our WCA web article.
