Pregnancy and motherhood can take its toll on your mental wellness, but your wellbeing may be more at risk depending on where you live. This is according to children’s charity the NSPCC, which has found “worrying gaps” in mental health services for pregnant women, noting that support is patchy depending on where you live across the UK.
According to Sally Knock, a development manager for babies from the charity, ‘There are gaps in services at the moment. More needs to be done to make sure mums and babies get the help they need during this important period.’ She added, ‘In extreme cases depression after child-birth can affect their bond with an infant. A lot of parents just need to know the basics. They need to know what mental health impacts having a child can have and what support they can get.’
As a mother of two, Sophie Walls, 27, has experienced mixed treatment for post natal depression after both of her pregnancies. Her negative experience was after her son was born, when she was living in London. ‘About eight months after my son was born he developed meningitis, which was very traumatic,’ Sophie explained. ‘I felt like I had to keep him alive. That just kept going around in my head all the time. No one could go near my son, I had to look after him. No one contacted me. I felt like I was totally alone. I took on a lot of pressure, I was crying all the time and I wasn’t sleeping. I had to ring a number, to ring a number and eventually a lady came out to apologise because I was lost in the system.’
Now, however, Sophie lives in Lancashire, which is where she had her daughter. ‘My health visitor was amazing,’ she enthused. ‘The midwives were great with any query I had during my pregnancy – I couldn’t fault them. I was put on medication because they thought I was slipping but they made me feel like it was OK. That’s the most important thing about post natal depression – the reassurance that everything’s going to be OK.’
A Department of Health spokesman has responded to the NSPCC’s warnings by saying, ‘We will work with key organisations – including the NSPCC – to see what we can do to help make sure every local NHS organisation is as good as the best in supporting women and families.’
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