My Blog

Yesterday was a day that I felt especially proud to be part of the growing surge of awareness and support for perinatal mental illness in the UK. There was a national media campaign and I spoke at two conferences:

1. Sport Relief
2. Conference in Hatfield for Hertfordshire
3. Conference in Kettering for Northamptonshire

1.

Sport Relief is a national fund-raising charity that is extremely well-known and recognised. To have perinatal mental health as one of its main aims is brilliant. Their focus was to create a conversation on Twitter #MumsTalk between 11 and 1p.m. for people to share their story.

7 in 10 women hide or downplay their symptoms

Sport Relief hopes to reduce stigma associated with the issue and encourage more women and men to talk about their experiences and seek the support they need.

There is a video by Fern Britton. I shall always remember Fern giving me such a huge hug when she read my first book ‘Eyes without Sparkle – a journey through postnatal illness’ (CRC Press 2005). I was a guest on ITV’s ‘This Morning’ to talk about it. Fern was so supportive because she said I’d explained just how she had felt too.

They have also featured stories by other parents. I love that they have involved fathers too. As a result, there were some other media stories yesterday, for example in the Huffington Post.

One area to be highlighted is the effect on men, who, after witnessing a traumatic birth, had been diagnosed with PTSD. Time to Change Wales and the Telegraph both had stories.

It is wonderful that society is finally waking up to the impact of these illnesses in men and women, with the media playing an increasingly active role. My blog on Sunday was along similar lines – the impact is on more than only the mother.

Yesterday, I also had the delight to present at two different conferences on perinatal mental health.

2.

‘Perinatal Mental Health: Early Help’ conference by East and North Hertfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and Herts Valley (CCG) was held at the Fielder Centre in Hatfield.

I liked that they set up stalls in the function room as part of the registration and drinks. The buzz from 150 delegates was immediate! There was an excellent range of people there – charities, healthcare professionals, commissioners, social workers, children’s centre team members to name but a few. It certainly captured the essence of ‘Everyone’s Business’ in perinatal mental health. Here is their press release of the day.

The day began with an introduction of the current national picture by Kate Barker, assistant director for Maternity, Children and Young People’s Commissioning, East and North Herts CCG and Liz Biggs, Programme Lead for Children. It was excellent to have Dr Steve Kite, a GP from Ware, as chair. I would love to see many more GP’s at such events.

I spoke first with a brief outline of my story and shared some of the key aspects that parents suffering with perinatal mental illness would like from services. I was followed by the Welsh passion of Mark Williams who highlighted the needs for Dads.

Elaine Hanzak speaks of her experience of post natal depression at today’s perinatal mental health conf #HertsCAMHS pic.twitter.com/hVbKT3gOhz

— Herts County Council (@hertscc) February 24, 2016

Both of us would have loved to have stayed all day, as we normally do at events. I like the opportunity to speak to delegates and learn from other speakers. Later in the day they were to hear from the impressive Professor Vivette Glover speaking on prenatal stress and Maria Bavetta from the Maternal Mental Health Alliance.

I am sure that the rest of the day will have been extremely productive.

3.

Leaving Hatfield for a sunny drive in convoy on the A1 and A14 to Kettering, Mark and I arrived in time for lunch at another event with a positive vibe!

‘Moving forward in Maternal Mental Health’ conference was by Health Education England and Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS held at Kettering Conference Centre. There were around 250 delegates. The morning had been filled with presentations from Margaret Oates, a champion of perinatal psychiatry for many years and a talk about the 1001 Critical Days Manifesto for Northamptonshire. Nicola Muckelroy from the amazing charity Action on Puerperal Psychosis spoke about her journey and the charity. I was sorry to miss the presentation by an emerging campaigner in perinatal mental health, Raja Gangopadhyay, who is an obstetrician and gynaecologist. Chris Bingley also presented from www.joebingleymemorialfoundation.org.uk .

Stalls there included NorPip;  Action for Children ; Family Action ; Spurgeons ; Northamptonshire Health Charitable Fund ; Family Nurse Partnership; CAMHS ; Five to Thrive .

After lunch we listened to Professor Jane Barlow about the importance of pregnancy upon infant mental health. She recommends the video series ‘Getting to know your baby’.

‘This website uses video to show health professionals and parents how to respond to a baby in a way that fosters emotional wellbeing. Parents can download the smartphone app to personalise it for their newborns.’

I spoke next about the vulnerability of families who are facing another pregnancy after a perinatal mental illness and highlighted some of the key areas of my latest book.

@elainehanzak talks about the vulnerability of another pregnancy after a perinatal mental illness #NHFTlive pic.twitter.com/SmiAGCoVBv

— Northants Healthcare (@NHFTNHS) February 24, 2016

I was fascinated listening to Professor Louise Howard  again. We have met several times now, especially at Healthcare Conferences (the next one is on 4^th May). This time she spoke about the prescribing of psychotropic medication during pregnancy and breastfeeding. She is a wonderful presenter and as the chair, Helen Adams, commented ‘Louise brought a potentially dry subject to life’. Louise shared with us details of ESMI – a programme of research funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) to examine the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of perinatal psychiatry services. I will blog further about this. Mark also gave a workshop about Dads Mental Health Matters.

It was a day where I truly felt that the uphill journey of raising awareness and increasing services for perinatal mental health has begun to build real action and momentum. I shared my story and some knowledge to 400 people. I am honoured to be part of this process.

Thank you to all who were involved in the events yesterday. I am increasingly optimistic for the families of the future.

What is your local CCG doing to put on events like these yesterday? Find yours here and ask them!

Let’s inspire more areas to get events on like those yesterday!

Elaine 🙂