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My name is Emily Seddon. I am a mental health specialist midwife at University Hospital Dorset. This is at the very bottom of the United Kingdom and I live by the sea.

I am passionate about mental health of women, staff and the future generations.

I am here for on-going support of staff, students and patients at the Lira Regional Referral Hospital and Lira University

Here are my contact details:

emily.seddon@uhd.nhs.uk

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Emily presented all our work at the Royal College of Psychiatry in London.

Talking about the project, working together and the future

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Over the day you will have many things that can make your energy levels less and it is being aware the greater things you have, the more it can affect your mental wellbeing

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If you keep putting others first, you'll soon find that you don't have anything left to give them. Sometimes looking after yourself is the best gift you can give to others. 

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If you are finding it hard to relax , why not listen to a playlist , it is free and may help you reduce worry or stress

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Music for wellbeing - Recovery College Online

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An overview of music for wellbeing for service users, carers and staff.

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Trying a body scan might be a way of you being able to connect with all parts of your body and relax in a deeper way

There are also other tips on the link that you might want to try

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Getting into nature – getting out into a green environment such as a park or on grass, is especially good for you. Even caring for your plants or animals can still help you get some benefits from nature.

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What is needed to create a mentally healthy organisation

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Burnout is a gradual process over time. Signs you have burnout could be attributed to stress, depression or anxiety and as such could go unnoticed and unaddressed.

Burnout symptoms can be recognised physically, emotionally and behaviourally. Most people will experience a combination of the symptoms below that includes severe exhaustion, feeling cut off from others, and feeling they have no hope, energy or reason for things to change.

If looking for signs that someone is burnt out, it can often be recognized by someone’s behaviour both at work and home.

They might be less productive, absent from work, excessively tired or appear irritable. Sometimes people can rely on excessive alcohol or drugs and/or their eating habits could change.

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It can be hard to consider that you have experienced trauma. You may not even recognise or name it as 'trauma'

There are many aspects to trauma and you may have experienced one, or a combination of several

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What does the WHO say about maternal mental health?

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Worldwide about 10% of pregnant women and 13% of women who have just given birth experience a mental disorder, primarily depression. In developing countries this is even higher, i.e. 15.6% during pregnancy and 19.8% after child birth. In severe cases mothers' suffering might be so severe that they may even commit suicide. In addition, the affected mothers cannot function properly. As a result, the children's growth and development may be negatively affected as well. Maternal mental disorders are treatable. Effective interventions can be delivered even by well-trained non-specialist health providers.

The Department's objectives regarding maternal mental health are:

To reinforce advocacy and provide global leadership for the mental health of the mothers;

To provide support to the member states on evidence based, cost effective, and human rights oriented mental health and social care services in community-based settings for early identification and management of maternal mental disorders;

To provide strategies for promotion of psychosocial well-being, prevention and promotion of mental disorders of mothers during pregnancy and after delivery;

To support the integration of the programmes with maternal and child health initiatives, reproductive health programmes and mainstream them with gender sensitive, and equity and human rights oriented strategies of WHO;

To strengthen information systems, evidence and research relevant to mental health of mothers.

Mental health of the mothers

A recent meta-analysis showed that about 20 % of mothers in developing countries experience clinical depression after childbirth. This is much higher than the previous figures on prevalence coming mostly from high income countries. Suicide is an important cause of death among pregnant and post- partum women. Psychosis is much less common but may also lead to suicide and in some cases even harming the newborn. Depression causes enormous suffering and disability and reduced response to child's need. Evidence indicates that treating the depression of mothers leads to improved growth and development of the newborn and reduces the likelihood of diarrhoea and malnutrition among them.

Globally maternal mental health problems are considered as a major public health challenge. Though maternal mortality still lies at the heart of maternal health indicators; for the post 2015 agenda for development goals, WHO is considering Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and proposing Healthy Life Expectancy (HLE) related indicators as well. This implies stronger focus on mental health conditions in the integrated delivery of services for maternal and child health. The need is not just felt in high income countries. In fact, some academic and public health institutions in low and middle income countries have already initiated integrated maternal mental health programmes. These have been low cost interventions with the involvement of non-specialized or community health providers. Impact has been demonstrated not only on mothers but also on growth and development of children.

Who is at risk of these disorders?

Virtually all women can develop mental disorders during pregnancy and in the first year after delivery, but poverty, migration, extreme stress, exposure to violence (domestic, sexual and gender-based), emergency and conflict situations, natural disasters, and low social support generally increase risks for specific disorders.

Effects of maternal mental disorders after birth on the mother and the infant

After the birth, the mother with depression suffers a lot and may fail to adequately eat, bathe or care for herself in other ways. This may increase the risks of ill health. The risk of suicide is also a consideration, and in psychotic illnesses, the risk of infanticide, though rare, must be taken into consideration.

Very young infants can be affected by and are highly sensitive to the environment and the quality of care, and are likely to be affected by mothers with mental disorders as well. Prolonged or severe mental illness hampers the mother-infant attachment, breastfeeding and infant care.

What to do?

Maternal mental health can be integrated into general health care including women's health, maternal and child health care, reproductive health care and other relevant services.

Identification and management of maternal mental disorders by non-specialized health providers

The mental health Gap Intervention Guide provides guidelines about identification and management of mental disorders by non-specialized mental health providers including in pregnant and postpartum mothers.

for mental, neurological and substance use disorders in non-specialized health settings

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Worldwide about 10% of pregnant women and 13% of women who have just given birth experience a mental disorder, primarily depression. In developing countries this is even higher, i.e. 15.6% during pregnancy and 19.8% after child birth. In severe cases mothers' suffering might be so severe that they may even commit suicide.

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A paper about maternal mental health diagnosis by midwives in uganda

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You can use this screening tool for depression.

Interpretation:

Provisional Diagnosis and Proposed Treatment Actions

PHQ-9 Score Depression Severity Proposed Treatment Actions

0 – 4 None-minimal None

5 – 9 Mild Watchful waiting; repeat PHQ-9 at follow-up

10 – 14 Moderate Treatment plan, considering counselling, follow-up and/or pharmacotherapy

15 – 19 Moderately Severe Active treatment with pharmacotherapy and/or psychotherapy

20 – 27 Severe Immediate initiation of pharmacotherapy and, if severe impairment or poor response to therapy, expedited referral to a mental health specialist for psychotherapy and/or collaborative management

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Level of anxiety severity:

Score 0-4: Minimal Anxiety

Score 5-9: Mild Anxiety

Score 10-14: Moderate Anxiety

Score greater than 15: Severe Anxiety

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White Ribbon Alliance Uganda (WRA Uganda) is committed to ensuring that all women and girls are able to realize their right to quality health and wellbeing. As a national organization, WRA Uganda is working to ensure that communities have access to respectful, dignified, and quality sexual, reproductive, maternal, and newborn health and social services. WRA Uganda's secretariat is comprised of key staff and volunteers who convene and coordinate members and implementing national programs. WRA Uganda is a registered national organization.

Explore more stories...

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White Ribbon Alliance Uganda | White Ribbon Alliance

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LOCATION: Uganda White Ribbon Alliance Uganda (WRA Uganda) is committed to ensuring that all women and girls are able to realize their right to quality health and wellbeing. As a national organization, WRA Uganda is working to ensure that communities have access to respectful, dignified, and quality sexual, reproductive, maternal,...

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How are you feeling? Take some time to think about how you are feeling each day.

If you notice there is a pattern of unhappiness, then you should consider some self care to improve mental wellbeing

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Begin to recognise your strengths in the workplace and how you can build confidence and compassion in your profession

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This workbook explores management skills and recognising challenges with anxiety

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look at symptoms and note experiences, as well as thinking about the importance of connections and self-care.

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to explore the role and purpose of emotions and to introduce some coping skills

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Introducing the CLANG model:

connect

learn

be active

take notice

give

Workbook to think about your current wellbeing in relation to the 5 ways

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How to manage tiredness (fatigue) workbook

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How to manage tiredness (fatigue) workbook

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Understanding why sleep is so important to function and recover

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recognise your own strengths and how we might build upon these

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Mindfulness is a term that many of us have come across but it can be confusing. We have created some resources to help unpick what is meant by mindfulness and explore how you might use these skills.

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The 'Window of Tolerance' model and how it can help ourselves and others. The workbook will begin to explore skills that help us learn to stay more within our window of tolerance

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Thinking about how we can be compassionate to ourselves and to others is an important topic for us. Compassion is one of the most powerful ways of coping and building resilience.

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1. Introduction - beginning to understand and manage stress and anxiety in pregnancy

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A course with training in regards to:

What is birth trauma?

Preventing birth trauma

Trauma-informed care

The password for accessing the course is:

Understanding*birth%trauma

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If you're a health professional and you'd like to receive face-to-face training from the BTA, please email us. We also have three online training videos that you can watch on their own, or to complement the face-to-face training.

TV presenter and BTA ambassador Anna Williamson, who has herself had experience of birth trauma, presents our three training videos for health professionals.

Each video is about 35 minutes long, and is a mix of interviews with experts and people talking about their personal experience.

You are welcome to watch them and share them with colleagues - to receive the passwords to access the videos please email us. We don't charge, but if you've found the videos useful, we'd welcome a donation.

Downloadable notes to accompany the training videos

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Health Professionals - training - Birth Trauma Association

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The Birth Trauma Association provides face-to-face, online and video training for you and your team. If you're a health professional and you'd like to receive face-to-face training from the BTA, please email us at enquiries@birthtraumaassociation.org.uk

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Maternal mental wellbeing recorded presentation

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Maternal mental wellbeing recorded presentation

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Recorded presentation by Emily about mental health for pregnant women

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Beige Pastel Orange Pastel Purple Professional Gradients College Thesis Education Presentation (1)

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Maternal psychosis a recorded presentation

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Maternal psychosis a recorded presentation

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Copy of Copy of Copy of Perinatal Mental Health

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Check out this Presentation designed by Emily Seddon.

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Latest UK report compiling lessons learnt for maternity services

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Saving Lives, Improving Mothers’ Care 2024 - Lessons learned to inform maternity care from the UK and Ireland Confidential Enquiries into Maternal Deaths and Morbidity 2020-22 | MBRRACE-UK | NPEU

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The National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit (NPEU) is a multidisciplinary research unit based at the University of Oxford. Our work involves running randomised con

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Black Maternal Mental Health Week 23-29th Sept

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Black Maternal Mental Health Week 23-29th Sept

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Black Maternal Mental Health Week UK is an annual event dedicated to raising awareness about the mental health challenges faced by Black mothers.

Black Maternal Mental Health Week 2025 aims to improve mental health outcomes for Black mothers and their children. Through collective action, self-advocacy, and collaboration, we can create a future where Black mothers and children thrive, both mentally and emotionally.