Celebrating Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week and Mental Health Awareness Month

This week we are celebrating Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week, which focuses on bringing attention to the struggles with mental health that many new and expecting parents face. The week is organized and led by the Perinatal Mental Health Partnership UK (PMHP UK), who launched the first-ever UK Maternal Mental Health Matters Awareness Week in 2014. Here in the U.S., The Blue Dot Project promotes this week through a social media campaign that invites mothers to share photos and posts about their personal experiences with motherhood. 

In celebration of this week, and May as Mental Health Awareness Month, we have worked with parents and community members to curate resources that support parents’ wellness and self-care practices. Check them out here:

Everyday Self-Care: Honoring Ourselves, Body and Mind

This blog, written by Kate Kripke, LCSW, PMH-C, of the Postpartum Wellness Center of Boulder, explores the common struggles parents face when beginning their wellness and self-care journey. She offers tips and affirming words that will help you see wellness and self-care in a new light. 

My Baby My Move

My Baby My Move provides a synthesis of the latest evidenced-based information regarding multiple health behaviors such as physical activity, healthy eating, healthy weight gain, smoking cessation and stress management during the perinatal period.

COVID-19 Wellness Strategies in Pregnancy

Wellness strategies and ideas on how to gain some feeling of calm, preparation, and control during the era of COVID-19. Compiled by the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Colorado.

COVID-19 Wellness Strategies for Moms with New Babies

The psychiatry department at University of Colorado compiled this summary of strategies to support you and your baby’s health and wellness during the unprecedented and difficult time of COVID-19.

MyCare Emotional Wellness Self-Help Tool

This resource has been designed by Maternal Mental Health NOW to help you feel prepared to adjust to the emotional demands, joys, and stressors of trying to conceive, pregnancy, and parenting.

Taking Care of Yourself

This video by the Early Childhood Partnership of Adams County (ECPAC) provides information about the importance of self-care, and how parents can get started.

We are excited to support Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week and hope you will explore, use, and share these resources! If you are interested in learning more about or getting involved with Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week, please visit the Perinatal Mental Health Partnership UK or The Blue Dot websites.