A quick summary:
Nobody really prepares you for how hard the early stages of parenthood can be on your mental health. There is so much focus on the practical stuff. The feeding schedules, the sleep deprivation, the endless googling at 3am. But the emotional reality? That tends to get glossed over when what people actually need is someone to say: this is genuinely hard, you are not failing, and you do not have to just push through it.
That’s what Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week is for. And this year, with a theme of "A Decade of Voices," it’s about recognising how far we’ve come in getting people to speak up, and how much further we still need to go.
The numbers are hard to ignore
Around 1 in 5 new and expectant parents in the UK experience a perinatal mental health condition. That covers everything from postnatal depression and anxiety to birth trauma and postpartum psychosis.
In England specifically, the Royal College of Psychiatrists flagged in 2025 that up to 85,000 new mums are experiencing postnatal depression at any one time. And that’s just the cases that get spotted and recorded.
The more sobering figure is this: 34% of all maternal deaths in the UK are linked to mental health. Suicide remains one of the leading causes of death in women in the year after giving birth. When we talk about maternal mental health, we’re not talking about feeling a bit low after having a baby (the so-called “baby blues”). We’re talking about a genuine public health issue that does not get nearly enough attention.
The NHS has been expanding specialist perinatal mental health services, which is good news. More than 57,000 women accessed support in a single year, up significantly from previous years. But there is still a big gap between who needs help and who actually gets it.
This is not just a conversation for ‘mums’
This awareness week specifically centres the mental health of people who have given birth or are going through the perinatal period; but the ripple effects go wider than that.
Partners and co-parents experience postnatal depression too, and they are far less likely to be asked about it or referred for support. Adoptive parents, single parents, same-sex couples and those who have been through fertility treatment or pregnancy loss are all navigating their own version of this, often without any of the systems around them being set up to recognise it. If your journey into parenthood didn’t follow the ‘standard’ path, the support on offer has probably felt pretty hit and miss. That needs to change.
So what does this mean for employers?
Probably more than most organisations have thought about.
If 1 in 5 new parents is struggling with their mental health, and you have any number of people on your team who are in that stage of life, this suggests someone in your workplace is quietly going through it right now. They might be back from leave and just about holding it together. They might be an adoptive parent who did not even qualify for the same statutory rights as a biological parent. They might not have told anyone what they have been through.
The way a workplace responds to all of this, not just in policy but in how people are actually treated day to day, has a real impact on whether people stay, whether they recover, and whether they ever feel safe enough to ask for help.
What actually helps people suffering poor maternal health?
A few things that genuinely make a difference:
Real flexibility: Not ‘we technically offer flexible working’ flexibility, but the kind where adjusting hours does not feel like asking for a favour. For parents managing postnatal anxiety or depression, predictability and flexibility can be genuinely stabilising.
Mental health support that goes beyond a generic helpline: EAP services are a starting point, but they are not always equipped to support the specific experience of perinatal mental health. Access to therapists, support groups, and services that understand what people are actually going through matters. With Heka, employees can choose the support that works for them, which is important when no two experiences look the same.
Leave policies that treat all parents equally: If your parental leave still has a two-tier system where adoptive parents or non-birthing parents get significantly less, that sends a message about who your policies were designed for. It’s worth reviewing.
This week is just the start
#MaternalMHmatters is the hashtag for the week. And it does matter. But the parents on your team don’t stop struggling when the awareness campaign wraps up.
The culture changes that make workplaces genuinely supportive of new parents take longer than a week to build. If you’re not sure where your organisation currently stands, that’s actually the best place to begin. We can help you understand what your employees need, and make sure they have the flexibility to access it.
As expectations of employers evolve, so must the way we support working parents. The companies that lead the way will be those that understand a simple truth: when parents are supported mentally and emotionally, everyone benefits. Get in touch to discover the power of personalised health benefits.
