New research by the PATH partnership (see partners box), shows worrying levels of poor mental health experienced by parents during their pregnancy or in the first year after
birth and their lack of confidence to seek support. Findings included:

• New and expectant parents with perinatal mental illness (PMI) expressed feelings of low mood and depression (59%), stress (55%) and loneliness (35%)
• The most common barriers to seeking help were feeling ashamed (45%), seeming like a ‘bad parent’ (43%), pressure to be ‘perfect’ (41%) and fears of being a burden (38%).