Key findings

Barriers to identifying perinatal mental health problems

• Women and their families feel they lack knowledge about perinatal mental health conditions which means they fail to recognise symptoms when they become unwell.
• The stigma of perinatal mental health problems prevents some women from disclosing their difficulties to a health professional.
• Heavy workloads, time pressures and insufficient perinatal mental health training creates challenges for health professionals to identify and respond to perinatal mental health problems.

Specialist perinatal mental health care in Wales

• Important progress has been made in the provision of perinatal mental health care to women and their families in Wales.
• There are now specialist community perinatal mental health services in six out of the seven health boards, and women experiencing perinatal mental health problems are already benefitting from these new specialist services.
• Clear inconsistencies remain in the type and level of perinatal mental health service provision between health boards in Wales.

Accessing specialist perinatal mental health care

• The area in which a woman lives still determines the specialist perinatal mental health care she can access when needed.
• Large demands on specialist perinatal mental health services, insufficient staffing levels and space means that perinatal teams are stretched beyond capacity and unable to deliver services that are accessible to all women who need it.
• Women experiencing the most severe perinatal mental health conditions, are not able to access mother and baby unit provision in Wales.

Third sector perinatal mental health care in Wales

• A small number of third sector organisations are delivering perinatal mental health services in Wales, which complements specialist perinatal mental health services by extending the local support available to mums and their families.

Supporting families affected by perinatal mental health problems

• Partners and family members need information about perinatal mental health conditions so they can identify signs and symptoms and know how best to support women affected.
• Some partners and family members also need support to manage their own mental health problems in the perinatal period.

Recommendations include:

• Perinatal mental health should be incorporated into pre-registration training for all mental health practitioners and all health professionals working in the perinatal period. Training should include how to recognise and appropriately respond to the full range of perinatal mental health conditions, from mild to severe, and address the association between perinatal mental health and infant mental health.
• The Welsh Government should provide additional funding to health boards to address disparity in the level of perinatal mental health service provision and to ensure that these specialist services are able to provide all aspects of care that women need to help them recover.
• Third sector organisations facilitating perinatal mental health peer support in Wales should work towards achieving the perinatal mental health third sector Quality Assurance Principles.
• The effect of perinatal mental health problems on partners and family members should be recognised and taken into account by all health professionals working in the perinatal period.
• The Welsh Government should establish a dedicated assurance group with membership from relevant stakeholders in the perinatal mental health sector to monitor the implementation of its response to the National Assembly for Wales’ Children, Young People and Education Committee recommendations.
• As a key priority, the Welsh Government should establish the managed clinical network (MCN) so they can provide national leadership on implementing the National Assembly for Wales Children, Young People and Education Committee recommendations, and provide the necessary expertise to further develop perinatal mental health services in Wales.