Events for service uses in Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week
Perinatal service users celebrated Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week and World Maternal Mental Health Day with special events for them, their families and friends.
From Monday 29 April to Sunday 5 May, teams from Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust’s Kingfisher Mother and Baby Unit (MBU) and perinatal community teams organised events including a self-care drop in, a talk on the black and minority ethnic (BME) community and a singing session.
NSFT also launched its latest podcast which focused on maternal mental health and featured people participation co-ordinator Kelly Moulds, who said: “I have found this year’s theme of Rediscovering You for Maternal Mental Awareness Week a very poignant theme. So many of us as mums find our identity changes or gets lost and we can often have challenges navigating this new identity.
“Just being alongside the ladies at the drop-in group during the week and being part of the singing group on the ward allowed me the opportunity to share my own experience and hold hope for others,” said Kelly.
Jessica Kelly, specialist perinatal occupational therapist, organised the week of events for the MBU at Hellesdon Hospital.
The week started with previous mums from the ward coming back to talk to current service users. The rest of the week had workshops, including one with Haley Glennie-Smith, a Norwich-based tutor with the national community interest company Singing Mamas, and a drop-in event at The Feed in Waterloo Park, where nine mums from the community and the MBU enjoyed a hand massage, chat, goody bag and cake. The week rounded off with afternoon tea on the ward for service users, family and friends on the Saturday.
Jessica said: “This week has been amazing. The overarching theme of Rediscovering You is so important within a woman’s perinatal mental health journey. It has been inspiring to see all the mums on the ward engage in the different events and see how they have taken things away from it that will stay with them across their recovery.
“We’re so grateful for all those who have helped across this week. The team would like to say a special thank you to the mums who had previously been patients on the ward for coming back and so honestly sharing their journey with our current patients. This takes courage and bravery but was so beneficial to others.”
In Suffolk, the perinatal team focused on the BME community with an open discussion about mental health and the barriers which prevent some women accessing mental health services.
The podcast is available on Spotify via https://open.spotify.com/episode/6ZtSgVdOvVZ2G7kXyqbizK?si=jrP9tgBBSL-dySKG_hmBbQ
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