How to support staff with perinatal mental illness

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Perinatal mental illness can affect up to a fifth of new and expectant mothers. Francesca Prior discusses how occupational health professionals and line managers can support those with a mental health condition their partners.
Parents make up a large part of the UK labour market – 75.1% of mothers and 92.6% of fathers with dependent children are in work, according to the Office for National Statistics.
Many of these parents face challenges in balancing their responsibilities. The ONS figures, from 2019, showed that 34.9% of working parents whose youngest child was between 0 and 4 years faced difficulties in fulfilling their responsibilities. This can often have an effect on their mental wellbeing.
Some new mothers may also suffer from perinatal mental illness (PMI). According to the Centre for Mental Health, PMI can affect between 10 to 20% of women during pregnancy and the first year after having a baby. Yet, relatively few employers know about PMI.
By supporting employees who are experiencing PMI, or partners of those with PMI, organisations can help employees to remain in work, support wellbeing and ensure productivity and service delivery is continued.
Perinatal mental illness can affect a woman from the day of conception. This means that once an employee has announced their pregnancy, managers, colleagues and occupational health practitioners need to look out for them.
The transition into parenthood can be an anxious and stressful time. According to research by PATH – an EU-funded project that enables women, families and healthcare professionals to prevent, recognise and manage PMI – 59% of new and expectant mothers expressed feelings of low mood and depression, 55% were stressed and 35% felt lonely.
What is more shocking is that 41% felt a pressure to be perfect, with 20% expressing that social media has increased the anxiety they experience.
Furthermore, the Institute of Health Visiting found that a quarter of mothers and 10% of fathers have experienced some form of psychological distress antenatally and postnatally.

Supporting parents

So, the question is, what can be done to support parents in the workplace?
The Institute of Health Visiting and Southampton City Council conducted research with parents and employers to identify what could be put in place to improve support at work. While there are laws and policies to guide employers and support employees, there is so much more that can be