From 4 May to 10 May 2026 it was Maternal Mental Health Week, a campaign dedicated to talking about mental health problems before, during and after pregnancy. To support the campaign, we spoke with Mary Magee from the Perinatal & Infant Mental Health team in the Southern Health and Social Care Trust (SHSCT) who shared with us the nature of her work, why it’s important, and what Parent Programmes can do to help parents on their journey.
Could you tell us a little bit more about your role and what it entails?
I work in a very privileged position as a specialist health visitor for perinatal and infant mental health within the Perinatal Mental Health service in the SHSCT. Our team is made up of a range of multidisciplinary staff with specialist knowledge, experience and training in perinatal mental health. We offer care and support for women with a diagnosis of serious mental illness and those who are experiencing a moderate to severe impact from a mental health illness. The term perinatal refers to the period in pregnancy and up to one year postnatal.
A significant element of my role is to keep the baby or infant in mind. By design, my interventions (both one-to-one and group-based) allow for the gentle nurturing of mothers, building their sense of self as a new mummy which allows them to also nurture their babies. This support and care is offered alongside specialist interventions from other members of our team, to help a mother maintain her mental health and wellbeing in recovery.
In addition to my clinical role within our team, I also liaise closely with the core health visiting service, providing updates and perinatal mental health awareness training. We offer consultation and advice to support health visitors in their care of mothers who may be experiencing perinatal mental illness, which may be having an impact on their functioning and connection with their infant. This clinical guidance can aid timely and appropriate referrals to the perinatal mental health service, while also strengthening knowledge and expertise within the core health visiting service.
Why do you think evidence-based parent programmes are needed?
Evidence-based parent programmes can support a focus on enhancing the parent-infant relationship, while also supporting maternal mental health and wellbeing. By adhering to fidelity of the programme, facilitators can nurture mothers and infants, which can foster an increasing sense of parenting self-efficacy. Research tells us enhancing the parent’s sense of self builds a foundation of belief in parenting, increasing confidence. This can act as a buffer to the potential impact of ruptures that may be present in the mother/infant dyad and build foundations of resilience for a mother for any future ruptures that may occur, contributing to positive outcomes for the infant.
It was Maternal Mental Health Week this month. What do you wish people understood more about this topic?
Becoming a new parent can be an exciting time. However, for many new parents, in particular mothers, the experience can also stir up a range of feelings and emotions. Women may experience a sense of guilt, feel like a failure, or feel like they are failing their infant if they struggle with their mental health in the perinatal period. Barriers to people seeking help can include stigma or fear of child removal, a very real fear for many women.
It can be helpful for expectant and new mothers to understand this is very common, with approx. 1 in 4 women experience a range of mental health problems and illness in the perinatal period. In fact, the numbers may be higher, because many women don’t feel they can share how they feel.
It can be really helpful for people to understand it’s okay to ask for help. It shows great courage and strength to reach out if something doesn’t feel okay in pregnancy or after birth. When a woman reaches out, she very much is keeping her infant in her mind by wanting to get support and help to understand what she’s feeling.
The theme of maternal mental health awareness week this year was “a decade of voices”, focused on raising awareness, challenging the stigma and ensuring that women feel listened to when they ask for help.
Many of the health professionals a women may come into contact with in the perinatal period are trained to sensitively and compassionately explore maternal mental health, connection with infant, and support and signpost to appropriate services when required.
Why is Maternal Mental Health important in relation to the wellbeing of a child?
Research and clinical experience tell us the early years of an infant’s life are important as it is a significant period of brain growth and development. Often the experiences an infant has in this period can shape the template for how they think about themselves and others. Their experience of early relationships can contribute to their developing sense of self and sets a foundation for how they understand their emotions, contributing to their own mental health and wellbeing.
We know becoming a mother is a constant learning curve, having to get to know another little person. This often involves energy, endurance and high levels of exhaustion. Coupled with a perinatal mental health illness, it can make the job of being a mother harder. With the right support and guidance, a mother can be scaffolded to develop in this very enjoyable and often very demanding role, to have space to be physically and emotionally present for the infant. In the perinatal mental health service, we encourage all our mothers to keep in mind the benchmark of “good enough mothering”. We know from research aiming for perfection as a parent is not achievable, so if an infant has a “good enough” experience they will thrive.
Are there any moments that really stand out to you when you think about the work you’ve been doing?
I’ve completed several specialist training courses in my health visiting career. The M9 psychoanalytical observational training (Tavistock) has been invaluable in my role. The observational approach adds a richness to being attuned to what might be emerging for both mum and baby as their connection develops.
I’m very lucky to be undertaking further training in VIG (Video Interaction Guidance). This intervention has enabled me to reflect greatly on the weight of our words when caring for mums and babies. When thinking with a mum about her relationship with her baby, which can sometimes take time to get established and steadied, the principles of attunement in VIG focus on nurturing a mother to notice tiny moments of importance in her interactions with her baby. These might be how she smiles; turns towards baby; gives baby space; waits; wonders; or how she receives her baby’s initiatives towards her. It’s very powerful to be with a mum when she can see and feel this from reviewing video footage of her interactions with her baby. VIG has been a wonderful intervention to support mothers to challenge negative perceptions of themselves and nurture a sense of hope.
In our service we facilitate the Incredible Years parent and baby programme for mums and their infants under the care of our team. As an evidence-based parent programme, it sets a lovely frame for exploring very practical advice in relation to the care of an infant. This frame also extends to supporting a mother to understand there is a process involved in becoming a parent and getting to know their infant, which can take a little time. The topics covered encourage a mother to hold in mind their infant’s developing sense of self, beginning to develop the skill of reflective functioning to understand their infant’s state of mind and the world from their perspective.
As a team we also hold in mind concepts from Togetherness; being aware of reciprocity, containment ruptures and repair in the mother/infant dyad has been very powerful.
I cannot overlook the most powerful training experience I have had to date: to be in the presence of infants and mums. Each dyad I’ve had the great privilege of caring for has afforded me wonderful opportunities to be present for really powerful moments of connections, ruptures and repairs. Infants really are wonderful teachers!
What do you think is currently being done well regarding perinatal and infant mental health?
I think there’s real value in the consistency of messaging in relation to perinatal and infant mental health across all the evidence-based parent programmes and approaches in the Trust. The services designed to support parents and infants in the early years, statutory, and the C&V sector strive to make perinatal and infant mental health everyone’s business.
We’re particularly lucky to have effective and connected interfaces with all our main referral sources, supporting access to timely early intervention from a perinatal mental health service. This in turn seamlessly supports infant mental health.
Within the SHSCT, the Think Family initiative aims to promote a more joined up connection between adult and children’s services, supporting the whole family - adults, children, and young people - when a parent or caregiver faces mental health or substance misuse issues. It shifts focus from treating individuals in isolation to identifying wider family needs, aiming to break cycles of adversity through coordinated care between adult and children’s services.
We have been very privileged to have mothers with lived experience of perinatal mental illness share their journey in recent podcasts. This will be invaluable to working towards reducing stigma, raising awareness, and most importantly promoting hope.
On a regional level, it’s really positive to see the interconnectedness of perinatal and infant mental health being recognised in the recently updated Infant Mental Health Framework, and the Regional Perinatal Mental Health Care Pathway.
As a team, we’re also appreciative of the opportunity to disseminate our messages and raise awareness through contributing to this blog and facilitating the upcoming Lunchtime Learning webinar with NCB!
Finally, we continue to raise awareness of organisations like Maternal Mental Health Alliance, AWARE NI, Pregnancy in Mind, PANDAS, Action on Postpartum Psychosis (APP), and Togetherness.
What would you like to see change in how mental health of parents and children is approached and understood?
As with all services, I believe there’s always room for enhancing the offer of support for parents, mothers and families. In particular, continuing to promote accurate, sensitive and timely information about perinatal mental illness. Stigma remains one of the leading barriers to mothers reaching out to ask for help. Having open and transparent conversations about perinatal mental illness early in pregnancy and throughout the perinatal period can help to reduce stigma and myths that are still very much present when a mother may consider reaching out to ask for help.
I’m also very aware the majority of my focus has been in relation to mothers and infants. As a service, we’re conscious of the need and gaps that exist in accessible supports for dads, partners, and extended families in understanding perinatal mental illness and how it can have a rippling impact on the family.
If you had unlimited money/influence, what changes would you love to see implemented with both perinatal mental health and the current parent programme system?
I would love to see an ongoing and consistent approach to raising public awareness of perinatal and infant mental health, for all parents, families, not just those who are accessing services or receiving care and support.
Lastly and very importantly, I’m aware the Department of Health recently announced NI will establish a permanent region Mother and Baby Unit by 2028/29 on the Belfast City Hospital site. We hope to see the timely progression of the establishment of this vital service; it keeps the mother/infant dyad and the interconnectedness of perinatal and infant mental at the heart of this specialist early intervention and care.
The National Children’s Bureau would like to thank Mary for her time and insights. We have tried to link to everything mentioned in the conversation, but if you have any further questions (or you would like to be featured in an upcoming blog post yourself), please contact Seren McKeever ([email protected]).