Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week 2026

Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week takes place from Monday 4 May to Sunday 10 May 2026. The week aims to encourage open conversations about mental health before, during and after pregnancy. This year's theme is ‘A Decade of Voices’, with each day of the awareness week focusing on a unique topic.

Colleagues from our Specialist Perinatal Service and Perinatal Trauma and Loss Service (PETALS) have brought together information and resources aligned to each daily theme. You can jump to a section using the links below.

You can learn more about Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week on the Maternal Mental Health Alliance website.

A decade of voices: Celebrating 10 years of progress

The perinatal period (pregnancy and the first two years after birth) is a time of significant change. About one in five women experience mental health difficulties during this time. Early support can make a difference, but many parents struggle to reach out for the help they need.

Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week aims to shine a spotlight on these experiences and normalise open conversations. Being heard and understood is an important first step towards recovery.

Over the past 10 years, awareness of maternal mental health has grown significantly, helping to reduce stigma and encourage more open conversations. Specialist Perinatal Services have expanded and improved access to care across the country.

At the heart of this progress are the voices of parents. Lived experience is increasingly shaping services, campaigns, and policies to ensure that care reflects maternal needs. Greater collaboration between health care professionals, parents, and peer support workers, has strengthened the support available.

Together, these voices have shaped the progress we see today and continue to remind us of the importance of being heard.

Voices of experience: Spotlighting parents’ lived experiences across the decade

We would like to celebrate an incredible journey: moving from being a patient to a peer supporter. This kind of journey enables to create a bridge between services and many mothers/birthing people who are experiencing mental health difficulties, allowing to create feelings of hope and empowerment.

Peer workers in mental health settings share some of the experiences of the people they work with. This allows them to understand what service users are going through, because they have also been there. Although no story is ever the same, peer supporters can understand the changes a person might be going through during the perinatal period and the impact it can have on someone’s mental health.

When we are struggling with our mental health, we can often feel very lonely and it might be difficult to talk to someone, especially during the perinatal period. This can be accompanied by a fear of being judged, possibly causing feelings of shame and guilt. Peer workers throughout the years have bravely shared their own experiences to foster hope, reduce shame and validate difficult feelings. Their stories can open up new possibilities and inspire optimism. Their support is one of a kind, as it is grounded in shared understanding and is an act of mutual healing, both for the peer support worker and patient. Transitioning from patient to peer supporter can profoundly shape someone’s healing, shifting both their self-compassion and how they view their recovery.

Don’t Cry Mummy

(to my children, you are my light love Mum x)

The darkness crept inside me,

Slow at first, then quicker.

Quicker and quicker until I was gone,

No more inside myself.

Sitting and crying. Hating and loathing.

A creature, a thing, a statue.

No food allowed, no love allowed,

Leave me alone and let me cry.

Support is offered, a bus ride away,

Daughter is 3 so she comes too.

Social services bus outside my house,

We get on board. Sitting, waiting, watching, crying.

Surprise! She grabs my hand,

Looks up at me, eyes wide and says ,

“Please don’t cry Mummy…

…it will be alright”.

- Written by Rosemary (Rose) Smith

The above poem, written by Rose, a Senior Peer Support Worker and Involvement Lead from the Specialist Perinatal Mental Health Service, is a brilliant representation that experiencing mental health difficulties is not the end of the road, but there is hope and possibility of moving beyond that and still achieve remarkable things. In fact, Rose, and many other peer workers, have been fundamental in creating change within the system, by providing feedback and thoughts to many projects, including: college courses and training; co-production of mental health services (including the provision of a more trauma-informed approach).

“Nothing about us without us”

Parents with lived experiences have a unique perspective on their own care needs – it is important to do things with them, rather than “for” or “to” them. Many expert-by-experience are now working in partnership to develop mental health services and are embraced as part of the decision making. This is to be celebrated, as it helps in bridging the gap further between the expertise brought by patients and clinicians, allowing to deliver care that is more attuned to clients’ needs.

World Maternal Mental Health Day: Joining the global community to raise awareness and break the stigma

Stigma is one of the most significant factors preventing women from getting the support they need for their mental health during the perinatal period. Stigma comes from society’s unrealistic, idealized expectations of new mothers. As a result, women may feel guilt or shame when they encounter struggles such as, not bonding instantly with their baby or when they experience sadness or depression.

The fear of being judged for these struggles can lead to women not wanting to talk about their difficulties and instead masking how they feel to avoid this. Creating a society which understands and acknowledges the struggles so many mothers go through is vital for helping them to access the support and care they need.

Maternal mental health is something that impacts people all over the world, and listed below are some actions we can take to break this stigma:

Educate ourselves about the different mental health conditions that can impact people during the perinatal period. The more we do this, the more we can show understanding and empathy to people when they need this most.
Have open conversations about topics such as depression, anxiety, miscarriage and birth trauma. The more these topics are talked about and normalised, the easier it will be for people to seek the support they need.
Offering Peer Support. Being able to have a conversation with someone who can relate to your experiences because they have been through something similar themselves is incredibly powerful in breaking stigma and reminding people they are not alone.
Make our services accessible to all. Maternal mental health is experienced by people from all cultures, religions, sexualities and other communities. Making sure everyone’s individual contexts and needs are understood, is crucial for allowing them access care and support.

Resources

Voices of care: Highlighting the vital collaboration between families and professionals

Together, we can care stronger

At the heart of compassionate healthcare is partnership. Everyday, families and professionals come together with a shared goal: to provide safe, dignified and person-centred care. This collaboration can sometimes feel difficult as many families arrive carrying fear, uncertainty, or weight of past experiences. Recognising this, we strive to meet every interaction with empathy, patience and respect.

Families may be navigating grief, stress or challenges with healthcare systems. By listening without judgement, being curious about diversity and being more systemic in our approach could help us create spaces where trust can begin to grow. This means involving families in decision making, acknowledging their concerns and valuing their insights. It’s also important to care for ourselves and one another as colleagues.

Reaching out after having a baby or suffering from a trauma or loss is not an easy thing to do. However, as we have seen the benefits from doing this are extensive. Perinatal services and PETALS recognise the bravery it takes to reach out and can support referrals and signposting to other services to help you overcome any barriers to further support. If you as an individual or in community know somebody who has just had a baby or suffered from a trauma or loss, we hope this poster encourages you to reach out and offer support if you can.

Voices of change: Focusing on advocacy, policy shifts, and lived experience changemakers

We spoke with Rose Smith (Senior Peer Support Worker and Involvement Lead) about her role in establishing a peer support workforce within perinatal services in Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust (GMMH).

The peer support team, comprising of Lauren Penning, Nicola Brennan, Natalie Tunney and Olivia Varker, play an integral role in supporting women and birthing people by reducing stigma around mental health concerns and facilitating hope for recovery. As Peer Support Lead, Rose offers consistent supervision and reflective spaces to help navigate this ‘dual role’ wherein Peer Support Workers draw from their personal stories of recovery to support clients.

The Peer Support Team (pictured) also act as change agents within services. They form part of the multidisciplinary team (MDT) – sharing insights from their lived experience and advocating for trauma informed and inclusive ways of working.

Here are just some of the ways in which the Peer Support Team have facilitated change within perinatal services:

Co-producing therapeutic intervention for Perinatal obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) with Psychotherapists
Co-facilitating a mother and baby group with nursery nurses
Developing and delivering trauma-informed care groups
Developing a craft for wellbeing group
Developing a Friendly Farewell group to support relapse-prevention and recovery protection for women and birthing people approaching discharge from the service

Group photo of five people standing close together indoors, facing the camera. All are wearing lanyards with ID badges. Large windows behind them look out onto a green outdoor area, suggesting an office or workplace setting with natural daylight.

Image of the the Peer Support Team

Voices of loss and healing: Providing sensitive, supportive messaging for those navigating perinatal trauma, miscarriage, stillbirth and baby loss

During this year’s maternal mental health week, we are honouring the grief many people may carry from perinatal trauma, miscarriage, stillbirth and baby loss. No matter whether your loss was recent or a long time ago, your experience matters and you are not alone.

Women and birthing people may experience trauma before conception, during pregnancy, at childbirth and in the postnatal period. Perinatal traumatic experiences (both physical and psychological) can be painful, and there is no “right” or “wrong” way of feeling, but just understandable and valid emotional reactions.

As a parent, experiencing the loss of a baby, at any point during the perinatal period, can be agonizing. The impact of this can be long-lasting and people may feel stuck in their painful experiences for many months or years. This is not the individual’s fault, but rather a normal response to trauma.

Everyone’s experience of pain and grief will be different: some people might have already experienced trauma in their lives; someone’s culture, spiritual and personal beliefs might shape the way someone will cope. What is important is for every family’s unique experience, feelings and needs to be honoured.

Healing is not a linear process - there might be external or internal pressures to “bounce back” however it is important to practice self compassion and give yourself all the time you need to move with the pain. It’s important to recognize the pain associated with may never disappear. It might soften, it might come in waves, and it may move with you while you are learning how to carry such experiences in a gentle way.

Support

The care that is received by families during and after traumatic perinatal experiences, can be a determining factor on how their healing journey and overall well-being. Below you can find a list of services that can help.

Perinatal Trauma and Loss Service (PETALS)

PETALS is a psychologically led service offering assessment and therapeutic support to people experiencing trauma symptoms directly related to perinatal loss or their perinatal journey (i.e. birth trauma, neonatal trauma, baby loss ). PETALS also supports people experiencing significant fear related to pregnancy, childbirth, foetal medicine, hospital or medical settings which is significantly impacting on decisions around reproduction and preventing a person from taking steps towards pregnancy.

Referral: Any healthcare professional can refer you to our service

Telephone: 0161 271 0188 (option 4), Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm

Website: www.gmmh.nhs.uk/petals

Finding Rainbows

This charity offers Peer Support to anyone who has suffered the loss of a baby, child or through early pregnancy loss.

Website: www.findingrainbows.org

Tommy's

This charity offers support to partners following loss of a baby.

Website: www.tommys.org

SANDS

Sands provides a safe, compassionate space for anyone affected by baby loss —including parents, siblings, grandparents, friends, and healthcare professionals.

Telephone: 0808 164 3332 (Monday to Friday from 10am to 3pm, and Tuesday to Thursday evenings from 6pm to 9pm)

Website: www.sands.org.uk

Voices of the future: Looking ahead to the next generation of support, innovation and progress

As Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week draws to a close, we turn our focus to the future of maternal mental health care – as shaped by Experts by Experience.

Nicola Brennan (Peer Support Worker, PETALS) runs a monthly co-production group. People with lived experience of perinatal trauma or loss are invited to share their feedback and suggestions for our service, so we can continually work towards better meeting people’s needs.
A key focus in the NHS Maternal Care Bundle is to routinely screen for mental health concerns during antenatal and postnatal appointments, so that families can access timely support. At PETALS, we are co-developing training for midwifery professionals in Manchester to recognise signs of PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) during birth reflections appointments and strengthen referrals pathways to our service or Talking Therapies.
At PETALS, Oliver Beaumont (Trainee Clinical Psychologist) and Anam Siddiqi (Assistant Psychologist) are also setting up focus groups to hear from people from global majority backgrounds and/or deprived socioeconomic backgrounds, who are underrepresented in perinatal mental health services at present. This is to work towards a commitment to reducing health inequities and shaping culturally inclusive services – as set out in the NHS ‘Fit for the Future’ 10-Year Health Plan.

As we move forward, we invite you to reflect on how we can collectively shape a future in which maternal mental health is better recognised and supported.

Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week 2026 | News and Events

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