Shared Voices: Perinatal Mental Health and Wellbeing

Abstract

This series stresses the importance of perinatal mental health and wellbeing. Policy and guidelines have been written to help support midwives in delivering care so that a woman’s mental health is treated as comparable with her physical health. Between January and August 2016, as part of a project reviewing perinatal mental health services, mothers and midwives came together to share their views and perceptions of asking and being asked about mental health and wellbeing. The ‘Picture Pathway’ tool was devised and developed to facilitate conversations during service evaluation by members of the Polyanna Project. In this second article, Anna shares perspectives, thoughts and suggestions gained from this service evaluation (Gaudion 2016). She ends by reflecting on the value of talking about perinatal mental health and sharing experiences; most importantly, of listening.