Portsmouth charity's seeing huge rise in the number of women seeking help for postnatal depression
A Portsmouth support group are telling us the impacts
A Portsmouth support group are telling us that perinatal mental health difficulties are seeing a "hugely significant increase" since Covid-19.
Perinatal mental health difficulties can affect individuals during pregnancy and after childbirth.
Talking Therapies Portsmouth say the increase has been seen since Covid.
Tamsin Rowe, Perinatal Project Lead and Psychological Therapist at Talking Therapies Portsmouth, said: "What we're seeing is, particularly since Covid, there's been a significant increase.
"A hugely significant increase in mental health difficulties and presentation.
"So what we're seeing now, we went through a process, a period of time where individuals were then having subsequent pregnancies.
"It was reigniting the trauma of having pregnancies and deliveries and being in that new-born period of time, so we were then having to do a lot of support.
"It's anecdotally improved since the days of 2021, but there's still kind of that legacy from Covid's impact that we're still trying to unpick.
"The statistics are still too high for my liking and we're working to do what we can to help them."
The most recent report from the Maternal Mental Health Alliance reported pre-pandemic, clinical level anxiety in new mothers was at around a third with 29%, and this has since risen to 72% post-pandemic.
For depression, the clinical diagnosis level was up from 15% to 41%.
Talking Therapies works with lots of other health professionals such as midwifery, health-visiting, family hubs and perinatal mental health team.
Perinatal mental health difficulties can include a loss of interest in doing things, excessive anxiety, impact on sleep and appetite, and more.
80% of new mothers can experience the 'baby blues' in the first two weeks after birth, which can include symptoms like crying more easily due to the change in hormones.
Fathers also experience mental health difficulties with studies showing they experience a hormonal shift when taking on the caregiving role, according to Talking Therapies.
Talking Therapies encourage anyone who needs help to talk to them, a health visitor, or family hubs.