Peer support is a lifeline for perinatal mothers - Holly Hendry

It’s Maternal Mental Health Week. This national campaign focuses on the mental health experiences of mums and families during pregnancy and beyond.

It provides an opportunity to shine a light on the power of peer support to help mums facing perinatal mental challenges. It is also a chance to make sure we recognise anyone in a parental role (dads, grandparents, foster parents, kinship carers) during these life changing circumstances.

After my first child was born I was offered a breastfeeding peer supporter. She messaged me on my first night at home. It was dark, the prospect of a night with a brand-new baby on my own was quite overwhelming but that reassuring message, from someone else who ‘got it’ was the comfort I needed. Rosey, another mum, told us “If I’d had it every single week, somebody to talk to, a space to go in and say, ‘this is how I’ve been feeling…’ it would have helped me so much to not feel quite so isolated.”

There is power in the sharing of experiences in a mutual and supportive way. Peer support plays an important role in supporting parents and caregivers as they navigate pregnancy, birth, and the years to follow.

Holly Hendry, Projects Coordinator, Scottish Recovery Network

Scottish Recovery Network were commissioned by Scottish Government as part of the Perinatal Mental Health – Peer Support Action Plan 2020-2023 to develop a perinatal peer support resource.

Collaboration sits centrally to our approach. With this in mind, we worked with people and organisations who are planning and delivering perinatal peer support to co-design a practical guide that will help others to do the same. We worked with organisations like Mind Your Head Shetland, Juno, and Children 1st. We spoke to projects making a huge difference like Fathers Beacon – who meet on and offline – and PND and Me, a Twitter (#PNDHour) peer support group with 18,000-plus followers which continues to grow and grow

The Let’s do Peer Support: Bump, Birth & Beyond guide is now available to download from our website for free. It’s full of top tips, case studies, films and has handy downloads peppered throughout. Think practical, accessible and informed by real-life experiences.

The development of this resource was timely for me as I returned to work after having my second baby. What a joy it’s been to hear and learn from other parents and services who have set up and are delivering perinatal peer support activities across Scotland. The whole process has given me the opportunity to acknowledge and validate some of my own experiences as I navigate this time in my life.

Collaborators celebrate the launch of the Let’s do Peer Support: Bump, Birth & Beyond guide

People continue to tell us that there is a need for peer support to be embedded across the perinatal system in Scotland. Across sectors and in different settings. Many activities I have encountered happen in the third sector and in community settings. However, recently we also welcomed the development of Peer Workers in Mother and Baby Units. We know from our work peer support compliments other kinds of perinatal support and care. Peer support is flexible but at its heart it is centred around mutuality, empathy, and shared experiences.

‘Together in a changing world’ is the strapline for Maternal Mental Health Week. This is an opportunity to support the perinatal peer support landscape to grow and flourish. Let’s continue to build sustainable perinatal peer support in Scotland. Make peer support a valued, invested in and accessible option for all parents and caregivers as they navigate the changing world in front of them.

Download the free Let’s Develop Peer Support: Bump, Birth & Beyond at www.scottishrecovery.net and join the conversation on Twitter using #BumpBirthBeyond

Holly Hendry, Projects Coordinator, Scottish Recovery Network