Maternal Mental Health Week 2023: supporting new families across the UK

Maternal Mental Health Week takes place in the UK from 1-7 May 2023.

It’s a national event organised by Maternal Mental Health Alliance member, the Perinatal Mental Health Partnership UK (PMHP UK), and has been running for nearly a decade.

Designed to raise awareness of maternal mental health – before, during and after pregnancy – PMHP UK wants to change attitudes surrounding mental health, while providing essential information, care, and support to those who need it.

The theme for this year’s Maternal Mental Health Week is ‘Together in a changing world’ – encouraging people to start conversations while shining a spotlight on the support available. This could be as simple as checking in with a new parent in your life to make sure they are coping, or being aware of the signs and symptoms of maternal mental health concerns, so you can get yourself or someone you care about the right help and support.

Maternal mental health: the signs and symptoms

Having a baby totally changes your life and it’s completely normal to feel anxious, emotional, or even overwhelmed, both during the pregnancy and after the birth. Latest figures show that up to 20% of new mothers will experience perinatal mental health conditions,13% will suffer with anxiety disorders, and 12% will experience depression.

Perinatal mental health concerns can occur any time from becoming pregnant up to a year after the birth. It can either be a new mental health concern or a flare up of a previous problem.

It’s important to remember that every mum is different, but symptoms of maternal mental health problems may include:

• A persistent feeling of sadness or low mood
• Feeling anxious at being left alone with your baby
• Experiencing worrying thoughts
• Difficulty adjusting to motherhood
• Feeling stressed and tearful
• Finding it difficult to overcome your birth

Most women will feel what is known as the baby blues in the days after giving birth. However, it’s important to tell someone how you’re feeling and to understand that, if your problems persist, you may be suffering with a perinatal mood disorder.

Causes of maternal mental health problems

There are lots of reasons why someone may develop a maternal mental health problem, including:

• Previous mental health issues
• Experience of abuse
• A lack of support
• Difficult childhood experiences
• A challenging birth
• Stressful living conditions
• A major life event

As a leading DNA and paternity testing laboratory, we know all too well how significant stressful life events and choices can impact someone’s pregnancy and their transition into parenthood. This includes when there are questions regarding the paternity of the child. Without answers, this cannot only result in tension between families and partners, but can also have an intense effect on people’s mental and physical health.

Non-invasive prenatal and paternity testing you can trust

At AlphaBiolabs, we’ve been helping new mothers and their families get those all-important answers for almost 20 years.

From just £99, our home paternity test kits offer either next-day or same-day results and are 100% accurate. This extremely easy test simply requires cheek swabs to be rubbed quickly and painlessly on the inside of the mouth to collect cheek cell DNA from each test participant (the potential father and child). This test can therefore be carried out on new-born babies.

We also offer a prenatal paternity test that’s 100% risk-free for both mother and baby and can be carried out as early as seven weeks into pregnancy.  AlphaBiolabs is the only UK laboratory to hold UKAS-accreditation for prenatal paternity testing and we offer the fastest and most accurate results.

Our DNA laboratory is also UKAS ISO 17025-accredited, with all testing performed in-house at our UK laboratory, so you can be sure of receiving 100% accurate, reliable results.

It’s easy to order your peace of mind paternity test or prenatal paternity test online.  However, if you require assistance, call our friendly Customer Services team on 0333 600 1300 or email info@alphabiolabs.com.

For court-approved paternity testing, please call the team using the number above, or email testing@alphabiolabs.com to discuss your requirements and request a quote.