As we come to the end of #MaternalMentalHealthWeek know that this isn’t the end of talking about maternal mental health for us at Home-Start. Our door is always open. We’ll leave you with 5 simple ways to support a new parent, pass it on! 💜 - Highlight what they are doing well. They have created a human! - Parenting is difficult! Acknowledge that becoming a new parent is a huge transition and may be very different to how they imagined it. It’s not all the picture perfect image we see on social media and in magazines. - Ask how they are doing really?!. Be prepared for them to share hard feelings. There can be feelings of loss, loss of previous life, time, independence etc. - Ask them how you can help them practically – cook a meal, help tidy-up ‘be a practical visitor’ so that they can enjoy connecting with their baby - Encourage them to seek out the support they need. This might be a friend, a professional or a local support service like Home-Start (fb)

The theme of #MaternalMentalHealthWeek is ‘Your voice, your strength’ We know the power of sharing your story and we’ve seen so many mums over the last 51 years, re-gain strength. Across the UK, we have perinatal mental health groups such as Mothers in Mind, Perinatal wellbeing groups, and a range of peer support groups for new parents including infant feeding support groups. We see mums supporting other mums day after day. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9J7MjjrbcNY&t=9s #MaternalMentalHealthWeek #MaternalMHMatters (fb)