Dr C’s check-up:

The NHS is opening mental health hubs across the UK to help new mums with things like postnatal depression and PTSD alongside the usual maternity services. Dr C says it’s about time

“Mums, don’t neglect your needs”

I’m glad to see these new

NHS hubs that will provide maternity services including psychological therapy and treatment. Although we are much more aware of mental health problems, it still requires a new mum to speak up, and many are still too nervous to. I hope making mental health a core part of maternal care will help to break the stigma.

LOSE THE SHAME

One of the strongest factors that prevents women from asking for help is the fear that they’ll be deemed an unfit mother and have their baby taken away. That fear overrides everything, and you can understand it. Making mental health part of maternal services makes it clear that it’s a common experience. Postnatal depression affects between 10 and 15 women in every 100, while four per cent of women develop Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) after birth. Feeling tearful, depressed and struggling to bond with your baby, or suffering with flashbacks of your birth, can all be common – and they can be helped.

SHARE EXPERIENCES

I wish more mothers would talk about finding their baby difficult, struggling to bond and even questioning their decision to start a family, because it’s true for a lot of new parents but there’s a tremendous sense of guilt around it. The more we can hear women saying, “I regretted having a baby at first too, but it got better”, the fewer women will struggle in silence, feeling guilty and not getting help.

OVERCOME TRAUMA

Providing help for PTSD following a traumatic birth is very important, because it’s fair to say that having a baby is still one of the most dangerous things you’ll do in your lifetime. Women can have vivid flashbacks, suffer intense distress at reminders of the birth and even feel pain, nausea or tremble when they think about it. We have all kinds of hopes and fears around birth, which magnifies the experience, so if you’re reliving this traumatic birth, you need to ask for some support.

Mums who have had a baby in the last year may also have gone through a lot of their labour alone, thanks to the restrictions. Even if your partner was there, having a baby mid-pandemic could have felt frightening, isolating and lonely, and could have led to mental health problems – and what you need in terms of mental health is contact, company and reassurance.

ASK FOR SUPPORT

Reach out and ask for support through friends, family, your doctor, your midwife, or whoever you’re comfortable talking to. If you can’t face people you know, try talking to people you don’t know through charities like PANDA (pandasfoundation.org.uk, 0808 1961 776), which offers support and advice to new parents suffering with mental health and perinatal illness.

DON’T IGNORE PAIN

It’s also easy for new mums to neglect their physical health early on, feeling they have no time, or should be prioritising the baby’s needs over their own – but if you’re well and happy, your baby will be too, so it’s important. The concerns women may be struggling with physically may be embarrassing, so pain after being stitched up, incontinence, discharge or piles – they may feel they don’t want to be examined, but the sooner you get these things seen, the sooner they can get sorted. It’s usually either really simple to sort, or you’ll be told it’s totally normal and will go away, but that’s one less thing to worry about, and nobody minds you asking. We want you to.

NO NEED TO BLUSH!

Incontinence – peeing when you sneeze or laugh – is nothing to be embarrassed about, but it is something to tell your doctor about. It’s important to get it checked out sooner rather than

later because there are things you can do. If left alone, it could turn into a long-term problem. I’ve also seen some really awful stitching that’s left women in a bit of a mess years later, and

I’m always shocked, because a woman’s health is as important as that of the new baby. If when your stitches are taken out you’re unhappy, I would encourage you to ask what the doctor can do.

PRIORITISE YOURSELF

Whatever symptoms you experience after having a baby, whether emotional or physical, ask for help, because you are just as important as your child.

● Turn to page 12 for our news report on maternal mental health