My Blog

We may question sometimes if one person can make a difference to something that causes a great deal of unhappiness to many. Yesterday,  a meeting in Liverpool was proof that this is possible.

On the 8th January this year, Jen Faulkner, wrote a blog post about an idea of getting interested people in the UK to organise a month long event to raise awareness of the symptoms, effects and resources around antenatal and postnatal mental health issues for all those involved.  Jen has written a book from a child’s perspective about postnatal depression called ‘A Monster Ate my Mum’! How apt!  The details are here.

From that idea, twelve individuals and charities came together in Bristol thanks to the power of social media in March. Yesterday almost 40 of us met in Liverpool to give this idea even stronger legs!

I felt privileged to be in the room and it was wonderful to have the opportunity to meet up with familiar faces; those with whom I had only had internet contact with and some new people. The passion and enthusiasm borne out of previous suffering with a huge power now to help others, was incredible.

We are now going to be working together to aim for a month-long national awareness campaign early in 2015.

The day began well with the coverage from BBC Radio Merseyside (see my blog post from yesterday).

There were so many amazing people and examples of great practice and support in the room. Here are some of them:-

PSS Postnatal support in Liverpool, who hosted the day.

PND and me – who have a weekly discussion each Wednesday at 8 p m

Fathers Reaching Out – aimed at fathers affected by postnatal illness

Smooth Starts Plus – who support families (located at a beautiful Welsh farm)

The SMILE group – based in Macclesfield, Cheshire

Bluebell – based in Bristol

PANDAS – represented by Edinburgh yesterday

We were also joined by a representative from the Maternal Mental Health Alliance, who said that this group would compliment the work that they are proposing very well.

We even had a presentation about the cross-party manifesto ‘The 1001 Critical Days – the importance of the conception to age two period’.  You can find more information here.

Denise Welch joined us too and shared her story of postnatal depression and that being treated for lack of estrogen had finally helped her mental health.

Mark Williams wanted us to have a photo to also spread the message about his new blog and ideas to raise awareness. (Click on the photo for a sharper image).

I feel very excited about this and look forward to the next steps. I spoke to 1st year student midwives at Chester University this morning. Perhaps we can get those involved in training involved?

The date and venue for the next planning event has yet to be confirmed. Would you like to be involved? Have you any ideas how we can make this an INCREDIBLE campaign?

Please add your comments to this post or send me an e-mail at elaine@hanzak.com and I shall pass them on to Jen, Eve and the other amazing people.

I hope that you feel very proud Jen of what has been achieved so far.

Elaine 🙂