A leading organisation in perinatal health has launched a national guideline addressing the gaps in mental health for new parents.
The Centre of Perinatal Excellence (COPE) joined Assistant Minister for Mental Health, Emma McBride MP, to release the 2023 Australian Clinical Practice Guideline: Mental Health Care in the Perinatal Period during Perinatal Mental Health Week.
The evidence-based advice aims to guide health professionals in supporting new and expecting parents, calling for more regular mental health screening for people up to a year after giving birth.
Executive Director of COPE and chair of the Guideline Committee, Dr Nicole Highet, said the current mental health screening processes for new parents is not sufficient in preventing the significant mental health issues they may face.
“It is vital that all new mothers are screened not only once during pregnancy and after having their baby, but twice – screening should be repeated later in both pregnancy and in the postnatal period,” Dr Highet said.
“With a significant proportion of women developing depression or anxiety later in their pregnancy or first year of motherhood, without repeated screening these conditions will remain undetected and untreated.”
In Australia, suicide remains to be a leading cause of maternal death, with ten per cent of Australian women experiencing depression during pregnancy and around 15 per cent experiencing depression after giving birth.
One in five women (20 per cent) experience anxiety in the perinatal period, that is, both during the pregnancy and after giving birth.
But Dr Highet said these shocking statistics demonstrate just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the types of mental health challenges new parents face, which COPE’s new guideline addresses.
“In addition to guidance around the detection and treatment of common conditions such as anxiety and depression, the guidelines address management of the more severe, low prevalence conditions, including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder and postpartum psychosis,” Dr Highet said.
Assistant Minister for Mental Health Emma McBride said COPE’s guideline will be instrumental in how perinatal mental health is approached in the future.
“Keeping new and expectant mums and families safe by providing them with the best possible mental health care is critical to wellbeing and I commend COPE, the professional bodies and the experts who have worked on the development of the National Guideline,” Minister McBride said.
COPE’s guideline makes several recommendations, including improving education for parents about emotional and mental health conditions that may arise in the antenatal and postnatal periods.
The guideline also calls for routine mental health screenings and for these screenings to go beyond detecting anxiety and depression, extending to other mental health issues.
You can access the full guideline here.