Breaking the silence on maternal mental health – Video series

There is an urgent need for supporting women who have symptoms of depression before, during, and after pregnancy. The negative effects of poor maternal mental health are many, for both mothers and babies, and yet there are no EU-level policies that specifically address this. As highlighted by key figures, this should be formalized in laws and policies. Since women constitute more than 51,7 % of the European population, their health – both physical and mental – should matter to Europe and its decision-makers.

In this video conversation series launched by Ingrid Froneman, we are delighted to feature different specialists in maternal mental health:

1. Dr. Ana Ganho-Ávila is a clinical psychologist and a researcher at the University of Coimbra in Portugal and action chair of the Riseup-PPD project in which MMM has also been involved. She shares her experience working with mothers to support positive mental health before, during, and after pregnancy. A mother herself, Dr. Ganho highlights the critical need to break the silence on this important topic and to start talking more openly about it. → go to the conversation
2. Dr. Alain Gregoire is a consultant perinatal (mother and baby) psychiatrist in the UK. He was the founder and is current Chair of the Global Alliance for Maternal Mental Health (GAMMH), and founder and President of the UK Maternal Mental Health Alliance (MMHA). In these interviews, Dr Gregoire shares his 25-year career working with mothers to take care of and promote positive mental health in what is a period of great change – during and after pregnancy. He also draws on his own experience as a father. → go to the conversation
3. Jane Hanckel is an educator and co-founder of InspirED, a social enterprise that seeks to bring inspiration into education. Jane has dedicated much of her career to understanding how to foster holistic creativity and support children in exploring their passion for learning and growth. In this particular segment, we feature a snippet of her film. → go to the conversation
4. Linos Muhbvu is a Maternal, Paternal & Child Parental Mental Health Advocate as well as the leader of Society for Pre and PostNatal Services (SPANS) in Zimbabwe. In this conversation we discuss his strategy on integrating maternal mental health into the mainstream consciousness, the challenges the organisation faced when bringing visibility, and his experience on how language and identity can shape people’s perception of motherhood and mental health. → go to the conversation
5. Dominic Richardson is the Managing Director at the Learning for Well-being Institute. He joins us in a discussion on how to support mothers and their families and what policies and societies can do to improve their situation. He brings vast knowledge on the impact of stress within a mother-child dynamic, the importance of early intervention in familial dysfunction, and how public policies fail to uplift families and especially mothers. → go to the conversation
6. Ana Barišić is a children’s rights advocate. Having experienced family separation at a young age, she received the support of SOS Children’s village in Croatia. In our conversation she gives a testimony of her time under the care of a loving host mother, who instilled values of resilience and compassion into her. We also delve into the support children and mothers need in order to thrive communally and prevent familial separation. → go to the conversation
7. Dr Catherine Monk is a Ph.D. Diana Vagelos Professor of Women’s Mental Health; Chief, Division of Women’s Mental Health, Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, United States. In this conversation we discuss what motivated her to research Maternal Mental Health, the risk factors at play and what can we do to improve access and support for mothers. → go to the conversation
8. Dr Saravanan Thangarajan is MDS, MBA Global Health Research Scholar and holds a Master of Medical Science in Global Health Delivery at Harvard Medical School. In our conversation with him, we discuss what motivated him to research the link between climate change and Maternal Mental Health, the crisis we are currently facing and what can be done. → go to the conversation

Conversation with Professor Ganho-Ávila

Episode 1: Why Maternal Mental Health?

In this first episode, Professor Ganho Ávila talks about the importance of maternal mental health and the critical need to start a dialogue around it for mothers, their families, and communities at large. She start off by explaining how mental health came to be so important to her.

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Episode 2: Research and new guidelines for PPD

Prof. Ganho Ávila talks about her specific research interest and endeavours as it relates to maternal mental health. Alarmed by a lack of resources for healthcare providers to detect and understand different clinical indicators for peripartum depression (PPD) (peripartum meaning during pregnancy and after birth), Prof. Ganho Ávila has been working with colleagues, including Make Mothers Matter, to develop European-wide guidelines for diagnosing and treating PPD in clinical practice. You can find the newly published guidelines here.

Episode 3: 5 things to know about maternal mental health

Prof. Ganho Ávila presents 5 points about maternal mental health. The key message: you are not alone and there is help out there. In fact, an estimated 10-20% of new mothers experience poor maternal mental health and 4-10% of new fathers, highlighting its worrying societal impact.

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Episode 4: Call on policymakers

Organisations like ours work to support and empower mothers by influencing policies to bring about positive change. Prof. Ganho Ávila lays out actionable steps policymakers, specifically in the European context, need to take to better address maternal mental health as well as more general issues affecting mothers. The responsibility is on all of us to help push the policy agenda forwards and demand change.

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Episode 5: How to support the mothers in our lives?

Prof. Ganho Ávila offers advice on how all of us can, and have a responsibility to better understand maternal mental health, the common challenges of being a new mom, and to create more supportive environments for talking about it. It takes a village to raise a child and we can be part of that by unconditionally supporting mothers, be that ourselves (in practicing self-care) or others.

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Episode 6: Advice to new parents

Prof. Ganho Ávila addresses new mothers and fathers on what they should know, as they plan for your pregnancy and beyond. Make Mothers Matter wishes to thank Prof. Ganho Ávila and Ingrid for their insightful discussion, and we look forward to continuing our strong partnership and joint advocacy work well into the future. Stay tuned for more videos!

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Conversation with Dr Alain Gregoire

Episode 1: Why Maternal Mental Health?

In this first episode, Dr. Gregoire introduces himself and presents his work. He also explains why maternal mental health matters.

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Episode 2: What does the research tells us?

Dr. Gregoire summarises what the latest research reveals about maternal mental health and its impact on both mom and baby (and even later generations). As he notes, it’s important to remember that maternal mental health has really only been on the research agenda for the past 20 or so years, so there is still a lot more to be learned.

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Episode 3: How do we nurture the nurturers?

Dr. Gregoire asserts that health and politics are inextricably linked. As a civil society, it’s our collective responsibility to call on policymakers to bring maternal mental health onto the policy agenda and to make positive changes that are in the best interests of mothers. As Dr. Gregoire puts it, how do we nurture the nurturers? You can find MMM’s recent call to action on this topic here.

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Episode 4: Global coalition for maternal mental health

Although much of Dr. Gregoire’s clinical and research experience is based in the UK (and France and Norway), his messages remain true for advocates all over the world, across multiple settings and socioeconomic contexts. After all, mothering is a universal experience, as is mental health.

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Episode 5: Partnering for progress in low-resource settings

Building on his last points (from episode 4), Dr. Gregoire explains how while there is a basic understanding globally of the importance of maternal mental health, interventions have to be tweaked across different settings (particularly those with low resources) to be both accessible and culturally competent. This will ensure the greatest uptake of the intervention and a larger number of positively supported mothers.

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Episode 6: From awareness to action

There is a critical need for all of us to shift the way we think about maternal mental health, and mental health more generally. To Dr. Gregoire, we need to first be better at recognizing and valuing our own mental health and then extend that to nurturing it in others. And especially mothers, as the primary nurturers in almost all societies.

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Episode 7: What all new parents need to know

Here, Dr. Gregoire shares what he wants all new parents to know. It comes back to remembering that you are an amazing person doing one of the most difficult jobs that humans can do. If you’re struggling, he says, it isn’t at all surprising (it’s a hard, hard job!) But that being said, there is help to be had. And most importantly, you’re not alone – make use of your village and be brave in asking for help.

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Episode 8: So what’s next?

Special thanks to Dr. Gregoire for being such a passionate and dedicated supporter of maternal mental health. His many contributions to the field are significant, helping to lay the groundwork for advocacy work like ours.

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Conversation with Jane Hanckel

Jane Hanckel is an educator and co-founder of InspirED, a social enterprise that seeks to bring inspiration into education. Jane has dedicated much of her career to understanding how to foster holistic creativity and support children in exploring their passion for learning and growth. In this particular segment, we feature a snippet of her film. In the background we enjoy her original composition of a song prepared for her film, as she talks us through on how to engage children more effectively; the benefits of arts for both the children and family; as well as how crucial it is to empower mothers at a young age.

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Conversation with Linos Muvhu

Linos Muvhu is a Maternal, Paternal & Child Parental Mental Health Advocate as well as the leader of Society for Pre and PostNatal Services (SPANS) in Zimbabwe. Here we discuss his strategy on integrating maternal mental health into the mainstream consciousness, the challenges the organisation faced when bringing visibility, and his experience on how language and identity can shape people’s perception of motherhood and mental health.

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Conversation with Dominic Richardson

Dominic Richardson joins us in a discussion of how to support mothers and their families and what policies and societies can do to improve their situation. He brings vast knowledge on the impact of stress within a mother-child dynamic, the importance of early intervention in familial dysfunction, and how public policies fail to uplift families and especially mothers.

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Conversation with Ana Barišić, Child Rights advocate

In our conversation Ana, who has experienced family separation at a young age, gives a testimony of her time under the care of a loving host mother in SOS Children’s village in Croatia, who instilled values of resilience and compassion into her. We also delve into the support children and mothers need in order to thrive communally and prevent familial separation.

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Conversation with Dr Catherine Monk

In this conversation with Dr Catherine Monk we discuss what motivated her to research Maternal Mental Health, the risk factors at play and what can we do to improve access and support for mothers.

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Conversation with Dr Saravanan Thangarajan

In this conversation with Dr Saravanan Thangarajan we discuss what motivated him to research the link between climate change and Maternal Mental Health, the crisis we are currently facing and what can be done.

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