TOMORROW is World Maternal Mental Health Awareness Day. The special day aims to throw a spot light on a particular mental health issue for mothers on the first Wednesday of May each year.

For me, this year, there is a special poignancy to the day when I think of the thousands of expectant mums in lockdown. For many new parents, pregnancy is an exciting time, however it can also be a time of great physical, psychological, financial and practical change.

But in these especially difficult days, services for new mums and dads have had to adapt the way they work and in some areas a lot of health visitors have had to be redeployed to meet the emergency crisis. So, when the usual support networks just aren’t there in the same way, and then the ability to share your pregnancy with the wider family is seriously curtailed as well, this year on WMMH day, for many new mums and dads anxieties and stress will be exacerbated.

Pre-lockdown services would often focus solely on the women’s anxiety symptoms, without addressing the impact on their developing relationships with their babies. We have also seen, too often, that mothers would have to be at crisis point before support thresholds are met and help can be offered to them. The mental health of fathers or partners can be overlooked too, despite the important role they play in mothers’ and babies’ lives.

To help address the needs of both parents, at the Bradford, Leeds and York NSPCC service centres, we run our Pregnancy in Mind service, a preventative mental health programme designed to support parents who may be or are feeling at risk of, or experiencing, mild to moderate anxiety and depression during pregnancy. Usually the programme would have involved face-to-face group sessions that are designed to help parents to cope with low moods, worry or stress.

But what happens when those mums and dads to be are in lockdown? Well rest assured, here at the NSPCC we are battling hard to keep our support services for expectant parents still going, to support them with their mental health needs and that way we can help ensure children get the best start in life.

Our wonderful staff at the Bradford, Leeds and York NSPCC service centres, as soon as lockdown started, were innovative in finding new ways of working, moving sessions online where appropriate or offering tailor made 1-2-1 sessions for example. One of the strengths of our Pregnancy in Mind service is the peer support - parents can meet with others in similar situations so it was key that we didn’t lose that element.

The teams are also reaching out to our supportive midwives, who are working so hard to deliver babies and support parents in these strange days. We want them to know they can still refer parents-to-be to our services.

But if you are pregnant and reading this, and you feel that you and your partner would like some support, or would like someone to talk to, for reassurance or something more structured please don’t wait, do get in touch. Call our staff in York or Bradford, as they are happy to help you and your family.

From the feedback from many of our parents-to-be, the service has been especially welcome in these difficult days, they feel reassured, happier, confident and crucially more hopeful.

It is so hard, especially when households are feeling added financial pressures, parents are struggling to cope with older children’s lockdown anxieties too, as well as their own fears for childbirth with the prospect of not having their partner there in the same way, before the social distancing rules were imposed. But with the support of our staff, dads and partners have told us they feel listened to. Our staff are there to help support both parents-to-be; to let them know that it is ok to acknowledge your own personal window of tolerance, recognising levels of stress – as one mum put it “giving me permission to know that I am important”.

So, in this week’s column I would like to pay tribute to all our service centre staff, working hard to still be there for children and their families when they need us most.

And, I would also like to make an ask for help. We have launched a new emergency appeal, we need to keep open, and so our new appeal Still Here for Children has a simple ask, please donate £5 or whatever you can afford to ensure we can still be here for children and their families. Thank you.