Action on Postpartum Psychosis | The national charity for mums and families affected by postpartum psychosis

4 June 2024

Shaheda’s story: A foot spa on the MBU turned into a really powerful peer support session

While I was unwell and under the care of a Mother and Baby Unit (MBU), I accepted the offer of a foot spa from a lady on the ward. I thought it was just a pampering session to help me feel better but meeting her was to prove far more powerful than that.

Mental health isn’t talked about enough in the Bangladeshi community. I for one had no prior mental health problems and had never heard of postpartum psychosis (PP) until I was diagnosed with it in 2018. It came like a bolt out of the blue and, while my faith and spirituality has always got me through the tough times, I realised I needed more support than ever during that period.

My journey to giving birth wasn’t easy. I had two back-to-back miscarriages and was referred for investigations in 2017. However, the doctor advised us to keep trying, and I fell pregnant again at the start of 2018.

I felt really anxious about it, but Birmingham Women’s Hospital were great, really looking after me and the pregnancy seemed to progress really well. After the first trimester, I started to relax into it.

However, as the birth approached, things didn’t quite go as planned. Three days before my induction date they found signs of preeclampsia, and I was kept in for monitoring. I spent two nights on a labour ward and wasn’t able to sleep due to everything that was going on around me. Once the induction was started it did not progress well, so I ended up having a Caesarean and then my beautiful baby girl finally arrived.

By this point I hadn’t slept in over six days and, looking back, this is when I started to become unwell.

I remember the first morning in hospital after the birth the noises around me felt piercingly loud – cleaning, banging, bins clattering, mops and buckets. My senses were heightened and I couldn’t wait to get home. I was exhausted and completely overwhelmed with emotions.

I thought being at home would make everything OK, but I was still extremely emotional. I was unable to sleep, I struggled with breastfeeding and I felt like a failure.

One night in bed, my husband gave me a piece of Indian sweet that I usually love, but when I put it in my mouth it felt like superglue. I started thinking somebody was trying to poison me and I became really anxious and felt like I couldn’t breathe.

I don’t remember too much about what happened next but my family came round, and they were frantically checking my pulse, my blood pressure and my sugar levels. They then called an ambulance because I was acting so out of character and was in so much distress.

The first time the paramedics came out I was behaving quite normally again – this can happen with PP, where you have these episodes but your behaviours can seemingly return to normal in between. However, I must have got much worse after they left that first time because the next thing I remember is waking up in an ambulance as I was taken to A&E.

I remember feeling like I couldn’t trust anyone - I didn’t even trust my family with my baby and I believed the doctors were all fake.

At that point I was just sent home with medication, but things got much worse over the following days. I became obsessed with cleanliness, obsessed with prayer. I began feeling paranoid, thinking that someone was out to get me, and then I started thinking that my daughter was special and that I had the secret to the universe in my head.

So many things were going round and round in my mind, I felt scared all the time to the point I couldn’t go to the bathroom alone. I couldn’t eat because of weird tastes in my mouth. I kept trying to connect dots and draw special meanings from everything around me. I felt like my brain was firing on all cylinders; that I had a higher knowledge and special abilities.

I ended up going back to the GP but this time it was because my daughter had some gastric problems. But while I was there, I had another episode, throwing a cup of water on the floor and demanding to see a different GP. The doctor realised I was really unwell and referred me to mental health services.

By the Monday, when my midwife and health visitor came, they found me dancing around, falling on the floor and trying to hide under the sofa. It was this episode that sparked the emergency admission to a general psych ward. It was awful – my thoughts were racing and it felt like the end of the world. I thought I was going to be locked away forever.

After two nights on the ward I was referred to a Mother and Baby Unit (MBU). It was Christmas Eve when I was admitted and most of the patients had gone home. This made my beliefs about the nurses and doctors not being real even more intense.

But slowly, I started to have this realisation that being in hospital was indeed real and just what I needed. I picked up a leaflet in the corridor that explained what PP was and I started googling it and reading about it on my phone. It was all starting to make sense.

At the MBU I was reunited with my daughter and my husband was able to come and help too. Although I was reluctant to interact with other patients, I bonded with some of the staff. I started journaling, noting down dates and times, setting things out chronologically. I started following a routine and this helped me to stay calm. Simple actions like waking up and showering, making breakfast, and keeping to a set pattern really helped my recovery.

Something truly wonderful also happened while I was staying on the MBU.

The lady who was there giving manicures and pedicures to patients treated me to a foot spa, and it was while we were chatting that she told me she also had experience of PP. This was the first time I heard somebody else talking about going through exactly what I had. I was blown away by how much we had in common. She was Greek so we shared some of our cultural experiences about mental health awareness in our communities too. Just talking about those paranoias and fears that went through my head was so helpful.

By the February, after a few days at home, I was discharged into the community team. By the September I went back to work. I was more or less fully recovered. I gave up my psychology sessions because I felt well enough but I do regret not talking about it more.

Thankfully, the lady I met on the MBU sent me some leaflets about APP and the support on offer. I didn’t reach out right away, but when I did, I met Natalie and had some great peer support sessions over a coffee. It was a while after that when APP’s CEO, Jess, asked me if I’d like to get involved in the charity’s diverse communities programme and I haven’t looked back.

I’m now a peer support worker helping other women and hosting the Muslim women’s café group, as well as raising more awareness of PP in Black and Asian communities. I really want to get people talking about PP. I, for one, believe if I had known about PP I could have got help sooner.

I think speaking to others is really important because you realise that you’re not alone. My husband and my family have been brilliant, especially my husband who bore the brunt of everything. I can’t thank him enough for all the support he gave me. But it’s also good to talk to someone who has been there. I urge anyone who has been through PP or is recovering from it to reach out for support. Don’t struggle on alone.

23 May 2024

APP May Newsletter

Thank you for supporting Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week

Thank you to everyone who got involved in Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week, 29th April to 5th May 2024, helping to raise awareness about postpartum psychosis (PP), and where to find help and support.

To support the week, which is organised each year by the Perinatal Mental Health Partnership, APP shared content each day and ran events. Highlights included:

A creative writing workshop (pictured below) for people with lived experience of PP, led by APP Ambassador and author Laura Dockrill.

The launch of a new APP guide “Being a Parent after PP”
A collaboration with NCT, who shared information about spotting the signs and symptoms of PP, as part of our Antenatal Education campaign.
A video highlighting APP’s free training toolkit for antenatal educators. ‘How To Talk To Expectant Parents About Postpartum Psychosis’ presented by Midwife Marley which has been viewed nearly 9,000 times already. You can watch the video here.
APP National Coordinator Ellie Ware in conversation with Aaisha Alvi, author of 'A Mom Like That: A Memoir of Postpartum Psychosis.'
An audience Q&A at The Bush Theatre in London by award winning director Bijan Sheibani, alongside APP’s Chief Executive, Dr Jess Heron, and Training Coordinator, Dr Sally Wilson.
Awareness-raising activities by many people including midwife Amy and the Welsh Perinatal Mental Health team’s stalls at Betsi Cadwaladr hospitals and APP’s Rachel Evans giving a talk to the North Sussex Perinatal Mental Health team.
The start of our 2024 Miles for Mums and Babies challenge on World Maternal Mental Health Day.

Thank you to everyone who shared our posts and interacted with us. Our social media activity reached more than 74,000 people during the week and posts were even reshared by Davina McCall and Denise Welch.

If you haven't already, don't forget to join the 'APP network' to connect with others, receive our newsletter, take part in research, and help to change things for the future.

It’s also not too late to join in with our #MilesForMumsAndBabies challenge - you can take on a challenge any time you want to! Get in touch if you'd like to sign up: fundraising@app-network.org.

Download our new 'Being a parent after postpartum psychosis' guide

Well done to…everyone who put this together - it’s really useful and well written.

I couldn’t love a resource anymore. I would have given my eye teeth for this in 2010. Awesome doesn’t even come close.

Our new Insider Guide: ‘Being a parent after Postpartum Psychosis’ was launched during Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week and shares information and ideas from APP parents at children’s various ages and stages of development.

With warm thanks to Clare Foster who conducted a survey with APP parents, ran face to face workshops and managed an online working group to create the guide, working alongside APP’s staff and experts in child development and perinatal mental health. Clare says: “working with women and their partners to create the guide was vital. APP is really lucky to have such passionate, thoughtful and dedicated volunteers.”

You can read and download the new guide here.

Big Give - big thanks!

Thank you to everyone who supported our Big Give Kind2Mind match funding campaign. The money raised will go towards supporting dads and co-parents in families affected by postpartum psychosis. Look out for more ‘double your donation’ opportunities later this year.

Book your place on our health professional training day

Really brilliant session. Balanced, informed, inspiring, emotional. So raw and real and yet very professional and contained. Best training I've attended in a very long time.

Book now for APP's workforce training - best practice care in postpartum psychosis - on Wednesday 12th June.

This one-day online training is suitable for professionals working with pregnant and postnatal women and families. It draws upon cutting-edge research in postpartum psychosis and bipolar disorder and the real experiences of women and families. It will develop confidence in identifying and managing risk, identifying early symptoms, and providing high quality support to women and families from preconception to recovery.

APP's workforce training is highly regarded: 100% of attendees say they would recommend it to other health professionals working in the perinatal period.

Tickets for Wednesday 12th June cost £195.

Awareness raising with midwives

APP took part in #MidwiferyHour on 15th May. Thank you to the Maternity and Midwifery Forum for inviting us.

The hour-long online programme, with a reach of thousands, featured APP’s National Training Coordinator Dr Sally Wilson and Peer Support Facilitator Shaheda Akhtar. It was hosted by Sue Macdonald, Midwifery Expert; Host and Curator, Maternity and Midwifery Festivals/Midwifery Hour, Editor, Mayes Midwifery. During the hour, we explored postpartum psychosis, the impact on families, and the role of the midwife.

The programme will be online soon to watch back. Follow The Maternity and Midwifery forum on social media for updates.

Volunteers’ Week 2024

On the 40th Anniversary of Volunteers’ Week (Monday 3 June – Sunday 9 June) we want to say a huge thank you to every volunteer from all of us at Action on Postpartum Psychosis.

Our volunteers are so important to our work. From providing peer support for mums and families, raising awareness and tackling stigma by sharing their postpartum psychosis stories, helping to train professionals, supporting patient involvement in developing services, to fundraising for APP’s work.

Every contribution is vital. Thank you for all that you do.

APP Peer Supporter evening learning seminars

Dr Sue Pawlby led a seminar for 13 of APP’s peer supporters (both staff and volunteers) on 'Supporting mums with anxiety'. The session looked at how anxiety can manifest and how the APP team can best help reassure and support the mums we support.

Many women experience anxiety to varying degrees after PP, and it was extremely helpful to learn from Dr Pawlby’s knowledge and expertise, and to reflect on and share some of our own experiences. Feedback from the session has been very good and we are very grateful to Sue for volunteering her time to support us.

Dr Sue Pawlby is a retired Developmental Clinical Psychologist who worked for 20 years on the Mother and Baby Unit at the Bethlem Royal Hospital. She trained as a child psychologist at Nottingham and has 40 years of experience working with mothers and babies both in clinical and research contexts. She pioneered the use of video feedback techniques in supporting the developing relationship between mothers with severe illness and their infants.

Diverse communities outreach project

This month, Shaheda Akhtar, APP’s Peer Support Facilitator for the Diverse Communities Outreach Project, gave a talk to a yoga class run by ACRE - Alliance for Cohesion and Racial Equality. We're delighted that ACRE will also share about the session and our information with their networks. Thank you, @acrereading!

APP’s Diverse Communities team and volunteers offer free talks and presentations to community groups and health professionals. We are keen to encourage more women from Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic communities to access information about postpartum psychosis.

If you represent a community or faith group or you are a maternity/perinatal mental health professional and would like to arrange for a talk from APP please email: app@app-network.org.

PP in the media

APP Peer Support worker Eli shared her PP experience in a hard-hitting ITV news piece about maternal suicide. The piece was filmed at Ribblemere Mother and Baby Unit (MBU) in Chorley where APP works in partnership with Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust providing face-to-face peer support and information to mums and their families. You can find out more about our NHS projects here.

Krystal shared her experience of PP on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour with Dr Abigail Easter from King’s College London talking about the ASPEN study into the causes of perinatal suicide.

Alex highlighted the campaign for a Mother and Baby Unit in Northern Ireland in the Belfast Telegraph and Belfast Live.

APP’s Ambassadors Catherine Cho and Laura Dockrill both shared their stories during Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week. Catherine highlighted the need to talk about postpartum psychosis in the Doing it Right podcast with Pandora Sykes and Laura was interviewed by the Daily Mail.

APP volunteer Ele shared her story in Women’s Health. Ailania spoke to Edinburgh Live about her experience and the importance of raising awareness of PP.

On 22nd April, APP’s Jessie Hunt joined a panel talk at Genesis Cinema in London for the first screening of “Wild Animal”, a short film to which APP inputted into the script development. Jessie was also interviewed for ‘An Open Conversation About Postpartum Psychosis’, published in the Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine.

Raising awareness of PP - could you join our volunteer team?

APP is lucky to have a large number of volunteers who work to raise awareness of PP.

They include Chris Wasley, who gave a talk to the University of Surrey Midwives Society on 21st May. Chris (pictured above) was invited to speak at the 'Unspoken Aspects of Maternity Conference', sharing his and his partner’s experience of PP.

Chris says:

It was really special. I decided to stay for the whole event and make the most of it. It was very emotional, but so many people said nice things after and I got a very nice applause! I am so glad I did it.

Ailania Fraser, who experienced PP after the birth of her first child, held an awareness and fundraising stand in Edinburgh’s Gyle Shopping Centre on 14th May (pictured below). Ailania raised £135 on the day, gave out information, and encouraged conversations between family and friends. The team at Gyle Shopping Centre thanked her on Facebook for the opportunity to learn more about PP.

Congratulations to Ruth Stacey on the publication of her book, ‘Everyone is Here to Help: A healing account of postpartum psychosis and recovery.’ Ruth’s memoir about her experience of PP is available to buy now with a small percentage of the sales being donated to APP. Dr Jess Heron, Chief Executive, Action on Postpartum Psychosis commented on Ruth's memoir:

A compelling, powerful and personal account of postpartum psychosis

You can follow Ruth on Instagram at @dichotomyofmepoetry.

We’re really grateful to Chris, Ruth and Ailania for supporting our work. If you think you would like to do something to raise awareness we can help by providing guidance on giving lived experience talks as well as literature, APP posters and resources. To find out more please email: app@app-network.org.

Fabulous fundraisers

Miles for Mums and Babies

Thank you so much to everyone who has been out and about running, cycling, walking, swimming and toddling this month as part of our Miles for Mums and Babies challenge - more than 50 supporters have taken part so far - including Lisa and friends who completed a five hour walk; Kayleigh and her husband who walked an epic 27 miles last weekend; Carly who’s completing 5 miles a day every day in May, and has roped in several friends to support her too; Sarah walking 300 miles in the month; Kate (pictured below) who has raised nearly £1,000 with her 100 mile walk and Karin who will be walking the 38 miles between her home and her nearest MBU.

Plus we have some fantastically dedicated teams taking part including the Humber Perinatal Mental Health Team, The Margaret Oates MBU in Nottingham, The Beeches MBU in Derby, The Andersen MBU in Manchester, the Suffolk Community Perinatal Mental Health and the North Wales Perinatal Mental Health Team.

Thank you! You are all incredible!

These are just a few of the amazing Miles for Mums and Babies fundraisers in action at the moment - a huge thank you to every single one of you and to all those supporting you.

Do get in touch if you’d like to take part in our Miles for Mums and Babies challenge - even though loads of people are doing their events this month, you can complete your challenge whenever you want to, we’d love to hear from you!

Thank you to our NW fundraisers - in 2023 a team took part in a Colour Obstacle Rush in Manchester, and we had planned a repeat of this but sadly the event has been cancelled. The team wasn’t put off though, and they still donned their APP tops, purple tutus and glitter to take on their own 5K around Alexandra Park. Add your support for their challenge here.

A huge well done and thank you to our recent runners - dads Steve and Mark (pictured below, right) took on the Hackney Half on a very hot day, raising more than £1,300 for APP, while Saffa (pictured below, left) ran a PB in the Bristol 10k on the same (hot!) day, sharing her own story to raise awareness and raising more than £500 from her supporters and with match funding from her employer.

Feeling inspired to take on your own challenge? We’ve updated our challenge page with new events including Hillsborough Castle Running Festival, Northern Ireland, Cardiff Half Marathon, The Great South Run, Run Alton Towers - Half, 10k & 5k and London Landmarks half 2025, plus many more. We have low registration fees, provide lots of encouragement with training and fundraising, and we’ll provide you with an APP branded top for the big day and a medal to wear proudly afterwards! Check out the challenge page here, or email Fliss for more info or suggestions.

Thank you also to APP supporter Cee Jae who is currently raising awareness and funds via live streaming their Xbox games on Twitch! Cee Jae is passionate about raising awareness of PP and APP. They say: "I received some very meaningful support from APP on recovering from PP myself a few years ago, so this cause is crucial to me."

You can follow Cee Jae on their Twitch channel (username mush_roomgoblin) and Discord server. You can also add your support via JustGiving.

Burford Golf Club Charity Auction

We’re delighted to be working with Burford Golf Club this year as their Ladies Captain Carole Harris chose APP as her charity of the year. The club have already raised a great deal for APP, and more events are planned, including an auction for a ‘money can’t buy’ prize - An Airbus A330 Flight Simulator Experience for four people. Anyone is welcome to bid for this exclusive prize - more details about the experience and how to bid can be found here.

If you or anyone you know are part of a golf club, we’d love to hear from you to chat about any opportunities to work together to raise funds and awareness.

Dates for your diary

Global Day of Parents, Sunday 1st June
Volunteers' Week 3rd - 9th June: www.volunteersweek.org
APP Yorkshire virtual café group meet up, Tuesday 4th June
APP Lancashire and south Cumbria face to face café group meet up in Blackburn, Friday 7th June
APP Sussex and Hampshire face to face café group meet up, Saturday 8th June
APP Lancashire and south Cumbria virtual café group meet up, Monday 10th June
APP Northern Ireland virtual café group meet up, Tuesday 11th June
APP Lancashire and south Cumbria face to face café group meet up in Lancaster, Wednesday 12th June
APP Lancashire and south Cumbria face to face café group meet up in Blackpool, Friday 14th June
Father’s Day, Sunday 16th June
APP dads and co-parents virtual café group meet up, Wednesday 19th June
APP London virtual café group meet up, Thursday 20th June
APP Birmingham face to face café group meet up, Friday 21st June
APP Lancashire and south Cumbria face to face café group meet up in Preston, Friday 21st June
APP Manchester face to face café group meet up in Manchester, Friday 21st June
International Father’s Mental Health Day, Friday 21st June
APP Black Country face to face café group meet up in Walsall, Tuesday 25th June
APP Scotland virtual café group meet up in Walsall, Tuesday 25th June
APP UK-wide virtual café group meet up in Walsall, Thursday 27th June
Contact information for all APP café groups is available here.

Events and conferences

Perinatal and parent infant mental health lecture series, from 18th June

The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust is holding a new monthly lecture series to share experience and research in perinatal and parent infant mental health. Lectures will be held on the third Tuesday of the month. More information here.

Becoming a parent whilst healing from complex trauma webinar, Wednesday 12th June, 12pm

Open to would-be parents, new parents and professionals supporting new parents with complex trauma. Delivered by clinical psychologist, Dr Adele Greaves. More information and ticket booking here.

Perinatal Peer Support - lunchtime seminar, Monday 24th June

Second in a series of lunchtime seminars run by Lifeboat Perinatal Mental Health CIC. This 12.30 - 1.30pm session focuses on: ‘Anxiety management for perinatal mental health peer support. Tickets are £10. Book here.

Perinatal Peer Support - lunchtime seminar, Tuesday 16th July

Third in a series of lunchtime seminars run by Lifeboat Perinatal Mental Health CIC. This 12.30 - 1.30pm session focuses on: ‘Understanding medication for perinatal mental health.’ Tickets are £10. Book here.

If you would like to advertise your event here, please get in touch: app@app-network.org.

14 May 2024

Double your donation with Kind2Mind

Double the donation, double the impact

Action on Postpartum Psychosis are delighted to have been chosen to be part of another Big Give match funding campaign. Our Big Give Kind2Mind campaign starts today, Tuesday 14th May, as part of national Mental Health Awareness Week.

This means that from noon on 14th May to noon on 28th May, every donation we receive via our campaign page on The Big Give website (www.bit.ly/APPBigGive2024) will be doubled, thanks to match funding from The Big Give.

So, if you’d like to donate to APP over the next fortnight, we would be so grateful – and your donation would have DOUBLE the impact – you donate £5, APP will receive £10; you donate £25, APP receives £50 and so on.

Our target for the month is to reach £2,500 in donations – which would mean a total of £5,000 raised.

Our target of £5,000 could help us significantly increase our offer of help and support for families affected by postpartum psychosis (PP) - a treatable medical emergency that affects around 1400 women in the UK each year.

When a mum is diagnosed with PP, the impact of the illness on her loved ones can be significant, and we want to be there for them. We provide one-to-one support and dedicated café groups for dads, co-parents and grandparents and vital information when they need it most.

Will you donate today and get your donation doubled?

We're so grateful for your support – every single donation we receive really does make a big difference to the work we do.

If you aren’t able to donate at the moment, we totally understand – but please do share our campaign with others if you can.

That link again is www.bit.ly/APPBigGive2024 - only donations through that page will be doubled. You'll also find shareable posts on our social media feeds over the next couple of weeks.

Now could also be a great time to think about holding a Big Bake event! Find out more here...

3 May 2024

Everyone is Here to Help – A healing account of postpartum psychosis and recovery

When her son was only two weeks old, Ruth was sectioned and admitted to a Mother and Baby Unit where she was treated for postpartum psychosis.

While there, she took copious notes, photographs and had lengthy correspondences by text with her family. Ruth’s detailed notes and messages allow for a unique insight into the experience of this complex and often frightening condition.

Published on 30th April, to mark Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week, Ruth has written a memoir which uses these materials to reconstruct her experience alongside insights and reflections from a well perspective.

An extract

One morning in December 2020, just after my son turned one, my mind busied with thoughts and memories: they flooded me. I took a green pack of post-its and started jotting down thoughts and memories, and didn’t stop until a couple of hours later. What I was writing were reflections from after our beautiful baby boy was born. Two weeks into motherhood, I became seriously ill with postpartum psychosis and was admitted to a Mother and Baby Unit (MBU) two hours away from where we lived. There, I was sectioned under the Mental Health Act and remained for five weeks and five days.

In a very short space of time I went from the strength and excitement of being a new mum, to the miserable fall of mental instability and unreality. It was terrifying. I felt it unfair and unlucky to have suffered in this way, but blessed that there was a bed available for me so I was not separated from our gorgeous baby boy.

I have referred to the unit fondly and simply as ‘MBU' throughout this book, as that’s the name we used at the time and since. This book was written predominantly for myself. I felt, if I wrote everything down, I could move on more easily and would help the last stages of healing: that it could give me some closure and quieten my mind again. I used my diary, the notes in my phone, photographs, phone messages and hospital paperwork to help me piece together a coherent picture of what I had gone through.

Even with these to help me, I have found that the great swings in emotion throughout each day, and the new light that hindsight and health have cast on those experiences, has made it hard to keep the story as clean and clear as I might wish it could be. I also strongly believe that I owe it to my ‘ill self' to give her a voice, as even though she was ill, wrong, delusional – she still existed. And so although I have written it mostly retrospectively, from a place of relative health, I have kept the first person notes made at the time, to ensure that her voice is heard and that every version of the events that transpired there is represented. These ramblings are often muddled, confused and nonsensical, and I should warn those of you who are reading this that it is not always a happy place to be.

I have also chosen to include messages between me and my family, because they were such a crucial element of my experience and recovery, and to whom I am always thankful, ever thankful. These are conversations between myself and my parents, my husband, and my sister – people with whom I was in constant daily contact. Again, they express the raw emotions we experienced, and the help I received during my time there. Writing this book has been highly emotional – embarrassing at times. I also know that witnessing me become so unwell cannot have been easy for any of my family or friends. It pains me to think of my husband waving goodbye to his wife and baby boy - barely three weeks old. The cruelty of false reality: I am not sure who it is more upsetting or frustrating for.

I'd be lying if I said what happened to me was completely behind me, that I feel nothing but positivity from the experience, as that isn't the case. Recovery isn't linear. I still have days where I cry at the drop of a hat, feel that life was unfair, I sometimes wonder what life would be like if I hadn’t been admitted. At times I still feel that I missed out terribly on Eddie's first few weeks and I just get days where I feel cross and angry and upset, and maybe I can't even put my wild emotions into words.

I could not, however, have made the swift recovery I did without the dedication of the staff at MBU, their Outreach Team, the Perinatal Mental Health Team and also the unlimited love, support and encouragement from my incredible family and friends. Thank you all for being so strong for me throughout this strange and truly challenging experience. I wish you all peace and hope in your minds, health in your bodies and love in your hearts.

I also wrote this book with the hope that women who have experienced postpartum psychosis, or have had negative experiences with mental illness, may learn something from what I have been through - that some may find focus and strength in my story - and that perhaps healthcare professionals and carers alike might gain insight into this serious illness by reading my story.

Ruth's book about her experience of postpartum psychosis is available to buy now from Foyles, Waterstones and Amazon, with 2% from the sale of each copy going to APP.

1 May 2024

Miles for Mums and Babies 2024

APP's 2024 Miles for Mums and Babies challenge kicks off today, 1st May, World Maternal Mental Health Day.

With more people than ever before already signed up, we're so excited to see and hear how everyone gets on with their challenges.

There are whole teams on board from many MBUs and perinatal mental health teams including the Margaret Oates MBU in Nottingham, The Beeches MBU in Derby, the Andersen Ward in Manchester, the BCUHB team in North Wales, the Suffolk Perinatal Mental Health team and the Humber Perinatal Mental Health Liaison team. The teams will be covering thousands of miles between them - walking, running, cycling, swimming and more - we're really looking forward to all your updates!

Lots of individuals are taking part across the UK too - including Lisa who will be completing a five hour walk with a group of friends, Hannah - aiming to run 50k in May, Kate who's planning 100 miles in a month and Carly, who along with friends, is going to cover 5k a day in May. These are just a few of our amazing fundraisers getting involved this month - we'll be celebrating all of them throughout this month so keep an eye on our website and social media for updates.

Thank you to everyone who has already signed up, and to all those supporting them. You really are making a difference.

And it's definitely not too late to get involved if you'd still like to join our amazing team of Miles for Mums and Babies fundraisers - you can get going with a challenge any time you like - we focus our challenge in May as part of Maternal Mental Health Awareness week, but you're welcome to pick any time that suits you.

Find out more, and receive your free Miles for Mums and Babies pack by emailing fundraising@app-network.org or completing this short form.

24 April 2024

APP April Newsletter

Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week

Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week (MMHAW) runs from Monday 29th April to Sunday 5th May. APP wants to get as many people involved as possible, getting more people talking about postpartum psychosis (PP) and ensuring anyone affected doesn’t feel alone and knows where they can turn to for help and support.

In addition to #MaternalMentalHealthAwarenessWeek, organised by the Perinatal Mental Health Partnership, World Maternal Mental Health Day is on Wednesday 1st and Pregnancy & Postpartum Psychosis, PPP Awareness Day is on Friday 3rd. The theme for the full week is ‘Rediscovering You’.

To find out more, join the free 'APP Network' community and follow @ActionOnPP on Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn and - our new - TikTok. Read on to see details of some of the special events we’ve organised in support of the week and how to join our Miles for Mums and Babies challenge for May.

New Insider Guide: Being a parent after Postpartum Psychosis

We’re delighted to launch our new Insider Guide during Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week (MMHAW).

‘Being a parent after Postpartum Psychosis’ has been produced with the help of surveys, face to face workshops and an online working group made up of families who have experienced PP.

The guide shares information and ideas from parents at children’s various ages and stages of development.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to the new guide. It will be available to download from our website here during MMHAW.

Creative Writing – A Lived Experience Workshop with Laura Dockrill

Monday 29th April 12.30pm – 1.30pm

To mark this year’s Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week, we are delighted that Laura Dockrill, What Have I Done? author and Action on Postpartum Psychosis ambassador, is running another session for members of the APP network who have experienced PP.

Join us for a relaxed creative writing session offering a warm, gentle, no-pressure environment to write for you and your wellbeing as we reflect on the week’s theme of ‘rediscovering you’.

There is no experience required and no need for fancy vocabulary or incredible spelling and grammar skills. This is a chance for your heart and head to do some talking. So, leave that inner-critic and expectation behind. All you need is something to write with and on.

There’s more information and details of how to book this free event here.

Take on a Miles for Mums and Babies challenge for Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week (MMHAW)

To support MMHAW, we’re inviting our supporters to take on a Miles for Mums and Babies challenge.

Taking part is simple - just pledge to walk, run or cycle and get sponsored to support APP’s work. You could aim to cover 10 miles, 20 miles, 500 miles or any other distance with a special significance for them: each mile reflects the journey mums, babies, partners and families travel to be together, whilst mums receive care in Mother and Baby Units (MBUs).

Thank you to everyone who has signed up already. We’re delighted to have so many people involved, with individuals and teams all over the UK running, walking, swimming, cycling and toddling hundreds of miles to raise awareness and funds.

Get inspired and find out more here or email Fliss at fundraising@app-network.org for more information. Or register for your free Miles for Mums And Babies fundraising pack here.

#TeamAPP - our incredible April runners!

This April we have had more runners than ever before taking part in events all across the country - we had 10 fundraisers running on one day alone on the 7th April - Rosie, Lillie, Jenna and Sarah in the London Landmarks Half, James in the Paris Marathon, Mollie and Chris in the Brighton Marathon, Ollie in the Rutland Half and Matt in the Fleetwood 10k!
And just last weekend we had four fantastic runners taking on the London Marathon - Lauren-Nicole, Rebecca, Luke and Lee.

We are so proud of all of our runners - so much time, energy and effort goes into training, preparing and fundraising for these kind of challenges and we are so grateful!

If you’re feeling inspired and would like to join our amazing #TeamAPP for a future event - we have places in events from 2.5k-100k, so there’s something for everyone! Get in touch with Fliss - fundraising@app-network.org and we’ll find the perfect thing for you.

Join an APP café group during Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week (MMHAW)

Our regional peer support café groups for women and families affected by PP meet monthly and are a mixture of virtual sessions and face to face meet-ups. You can attend whether you are newly recovering or recovered many years ago. They are a social place to chat, support each other and share ideas about improving the future for others affected by PP.

Our Black Country, London and Lancashire & south Cumbria café groups are meeting in Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week. If you are interested in joining these or any of the other APP café groups – in Sussex & Hampshire, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Yorkshire, North East, Wales, Birmingham and London - please fill out this form or email app@app-network.org. New members are always welcome.

We also run a virtual peer group for dads and co-parents on the third Wednesday of every month for people who have supported a partner through PP. The next meeting is on 15th May. The next meeting of our Muslim women’s group is on Monday 6th May. Our UK-wide and grandparents groups meet regularly through the year. If you would like to be on the mailing list for either of these groups, please email app@app-network.org.

You can find the dates of the next meet ups for all our café groups at the bottom of this newsletter and on our website here.

Essential knowledge for preventing maternal suicide webinar Save the date

The Alex Baish Memorial 2024 webinar will take place on Wednesday 16th October at 12pm.

This free webinar is open to GPs and other frontline health professionals including midwives, health visitors and antenatal educators.

APP experts, women with lived experience and clinicians will highlight the early signs and symptoms of postpartum psychosis and discuss how GPs can work with perinatal mental health teams to prevent maternal suicides.

More than 2,500 health professionals signed up for last year’s webinar. Of the attendees, 92% rated the training as ‘excellent’; 8% rated it ‘good’ and 100% agreed they would change their practice as a result:

The webinar exceeded my expectations. It is not often that I will watch a webinar that has such a profound emotional impact on me and left me thinking and talking about a topic in the days after (in a positive way).

There are no words that can really sum up how powerful this webinar was. I watched this with a student nurse and it created such a rich conversation. Thanks so much to all involved.

This webinar was so powerful that I think this should be a mandatory training video for all working in perinatal.

Please save the date - 16th October at 12pm. Details of how to book your free place will be available soon.

WeAre1in5 campaign

Postpartum Support International is highlighting a new campaign to share the stories of women affected by perinatal mental health disorders (PMHDs) from around the world.

During May, the #WeAre1in5 social media campaign aims to bring together PMHD survivor stories from different cities, cultures, religions, and countries to let new mothers know they are not alone.

You can submit your story here.

Book your place on our health professional training day

Book now for our online training in best practice care in postpartum psychosis on
12th June.

The one-day online training is suitable for professionals working with pregnant and postnatal women and families. It draws upon cutting-edge research in postpartum psychosis and bipolar disorder and the real experiences of women and families. It will develop confidence in identifying and managing risk, developing pregnancy and postnatal management plans, identifying early symptoms, and providing high quality support to women and families from preconception to recovery.

Feedback from previous courses has been excellent:

I think this training is essential for midwives, health visitors and social workers.

Really brilliant session. Balanced, informed, inspiring, emotional. So raw and real and yet very professional and contained. Best training I've attended in a very long time.

Tickets are now available at the early bird special for Maternal Mental Health Awareness week: £165 if you book before 5th May.

Tickets cost £195 for places booked after 5th May. Find out more and book here.

If you have any questions or would like to join our mailing list to hear more about AP’s training please email: training@app-network.org.

BBC Radio 4 appeal

Thank you to everyone who supported our recent BBC Radio 4 appeal. We were blown away by the reaction - so many people shared our social media posts and pictures of our electronic billboards. The billboard campaign was spread over four weeks with a total of 74 large format roadside screens delivering more than 16 million impressions. We’re very grateful to JCDecaux for providing us with the digital spaces free of charge as part of their Community Channel scheme, and to Mother London for creating the designs for us

Thank you too to our ambassador Laura Dockrill for doing such a wonderful job of presenting the appeal on 24th March. The money - and awareness - raised will make a huge difference to the work we can do supporting mums and families affected by PP.

Northern Ireland Mother and Baby Unit campaign update

Things are heading in the right direction for a Mother and Baby Unit (MBU) in Northern Ireland. The Belfast Trust is still working up its business plan, but in the meantime we’re working to make sure the Northern Ireland Assembly allocates the money to it.

Along with the Maternal Mental Health Alliance and Mas (Maternal advocacy service), who APP has done a lot of campaigning with), we attended the All Party Group on Women’s Health, a cross-party group of MLAs and their advisors. Laura, a PP survivor, with experience of being on an acute ward when she should have been in an MBU spoke powerfully about the many reasons for an MBU, as well as MMHA and Mas presentations. The group chair will write to the Health Minister Robin Swann urging him to find funding for an MBU, and will also put questions to him in the Assembly.

Our NI peer support group member Teresa also met with her MLA Nicola Brogan to talk about the need for an MBU, and Nicola will also write to Robin Swann with a view to a meeting. If other women or family members in Northern Ireland would like to get involved, please email us.

The Cord - a new play by Bijan Sheibani

Bijan Sheibani’s new play, The Cord, explores the intergenerational impact of postpartum psychosis - of becoming a father with knowledge of your own mother’s PP many years before.

Bijan - an award-winning director (Netflix’s One Day, The Arrival, Morning Song) - worked with APP to research the experiences of women who had become grandparents after PP, and of adult children whose mums had experienced PP. You can read a review of the play here.

Free tickets on Wednesday 1st May at London’s Bush Theatre (on a first-come-first-served basis) are available to members of the APP network. The performance will be followed by a Q&A session with writer/director Bijan Sheibani, APP Chief Executive, Dr Jess Heron and APP Training Coordinator, Dr Sally Wilson. Email the Peer Support Coordinators for tickets: app@app-network.org. The play is being staged on further dates up to 25th May. There are £10 tickets available to APP. Email app@app-network.org for a promotional code.

Who is the play suitable for: Having watched the play, we don’t feel this is a good watch for those newly recovering from PP, or anyone who has experienced PP and not yet a grandparent. It is set at a time when there was much more stigma and secrecy around PP. It will be of interest to grandparents who had PP many years ago. Similarly, it will be thought-provoking for the adult children of people who have had PP and may reflect - or be in stark contrast - to their own experiences of becoming a parent. Postpartum psychosis is not specifically mentioned, just alluded to. It is beautifully written and choreographed and will be of interest to academics and professionals with an interest in parenthood, relationships, and the mental health of fathers in particular.

We are recruiting in the Birmingham area

APP is recruiting casual Peer Support Worker(s) to join our innovative collaborative project with Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Foundation Trust providing peer support to inpatients at Birmingham Mother and Baby Unit (MBU). There will also be opportunities to work in the community both in Birmingham and Solihull and the wider West Midlands region.

We’re looking for someone with experience of postpartum psychosis to support women, one-to-one and through small group activities at the MBU. The role includes talking to partners and families of women during the acute illness phase, signposting to APP’s online support, community forum, and information. Peer support workers also help to run monthly café groups in the Birmingham area and various locations around the West Midlands region.

Full details of how to apply for the role are on our website. The closing date is midnight on Sunday 26th May.

Give us your feedback on APP’s NHS partnership projects

We know that meeting and talking to others with experience of postpartum psychosis (PP) is incredibly important in recovering and coming to terms with the experience.

APP has peer support facilitators and volunteer teams based within some NHS services and in Mother and Baby Units (MBUs) to help us provide peer support. We’re looking for feedback about our NHS partnership projects. If you have met an APP peer supporter based in an MBU, please tell us about it. Perhaps you attended a tea and talk session, or craft activity, like the one pictured above at Ribblemere MBU, or you have attended a café group linked to the NHS project. Please follow the project links to give us feedback:

Lancashire & Cumbria (in partnership with Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust)
Birmingham & Solihull (in partnership with Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust)
Black Country (in partnership with Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust)
Manchester (in partnership with Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust)

Big Give Kind2Mind campaign

The chance to double your donation via the Big Give Kind2Mind campaign is back next month! Between 14th and 28th May, any donations made via our Big Give Kind2Mind Campaign page will be doubled, at no additional cost to the donor or to us. So if you give £10, APP will receive £20 - you give £50, we'll receive £100, and so on.

Our focus for the campaign this year is on our partner and grandparent peer support services. We know that when family members who have been affected by PP are supported they feel less isolated and become part of an active, engaged community. Peer support aids recovery, improving feelings of hope, normalising experiences and increasing confidence. Helping family members understand PP and offering them the right support improves outcomes for the whole family.

During a Big Give campaign is a brilliant time to host a Big Bake event, as whatever you make at your event will be worth twice as much. Or if you have an APP collection pot at home, some spare change or just want to support our work, please do consider donating during that fortnight and double your impact!

New short film about postpartum psychosis: casting call for female lead

A Quiet Woman is a new short film about a mixed race couple dealing with postpartum psychosis after the birth of their first baby.

The film’s director is looking for an actress from APP’s community who has experienced PP to play Emily.

Filming will take place in mid November in south east England around Greater London. There will be two days of rehearsal followed by three days of filming.

The character’s age is 25-35. No prior acting experience is needed.

If you’re interested in applying please email Zah Ahmad.