According to the Joint Commissioning Panel for Mental Health (2012), childbirth is a significant risk factor to women’s mental health.

There is a marked elevation of risk in the early weeks following delivery of:

• developing a mental illness.
• recurrence of a pre-existing mental illness.
• deterioration of a current mental illness.

Many sources quote that one in ten women suffer from postnatal depression but last year (2014) it was reported by the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) that nearly 60% of mothers felt down or depressed after giving birth.

According to the NSPCC (2013):

“Relapse or recurrence of previous post-partum mental illness is well established and believed to be a risk of between 33% and 55%.”

And the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (2013) observes that:

“Young, single mothers are thought to have a three times increased risk of post-natal depression compared to older women.”

This demonstrates that postnatal mental…