\n<\/p>\n
Seven out of 10 mothers in the UK feel overloaded and almost half have a mental health issue such as anxiety or depression, new research has revealed.<\/p>\n
The survey of mothers\u2019 experiences in 12 European countries also found that most of those in Britain still do the majority of household tasks and caregiving work alone, and that the UK was among the worst for motherhood disadvantaging a woman\u2019s career.<\/p>\n
The grim picture that emerged from the report, by the pan-European campaign group Make Mothers Matter, prompted calls for GPs and NHS maternity and health visiting services to routinely ask mothers about their mental wellbeing and provide much more help to those who need it.<\/p>\n
Make Mothers Matter surveyed 800 mothers in each of 12 European countries about the psychological impact of giving birth and dealing with the pressures of motherhood.<\/p>\n
It found that:<\/p>\n
71% of UK mothers feel overloaded \u2013 4% more than the 67% European average<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
47% of UK mothers suffer from mental health issues, including burnout, compared with 50% in Europe as a whole<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
31% of UK respondents felt motherhood had a negative effect on their career, higher than the 27% average, with Ireland the highest on 36%<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
However, it also found some measures by which mothers in the UK find it easier to balance work and caring. For example, 11% said their partner did not take paternity leave \u2013 far lower than the 25% average across the 12 countries. And while 32% in Britain said their role is not recognised by society, the average across Europe was 41%.<\/p>\n
The 12 countries were the UK, Ireland, Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, the Czech Republic, Portugal, Sweden and Slovakia.<\/p>\n
Prof Alain Gregoire, a perinatal psychiatrist and honorary president of the Maternal Mental Alliance UK, said that, despite improvements in NHS care in recent years, too many mothers were left \u201csuffering in silence\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cMuch of the suffering maternal mental ill-health causes goes undetected, despite mothers\u2019 repeated contact with maternity staff, health visitors and GPs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a stigma associated with seeking mental health help and support, there\u2019s not enough of that around, so women face enormous barriers to getting help, and health professionals don\u2019t get enough training in spotting maternal mental health problems,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Easy access to \u201ctalking therapies\u201d that offer psychological help for mothers would \u201cprovide an unstigmatised way of accessing help and relieve huge amounts of the suffering for mothers and families,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
He pinpointed the UK\u2019s lack of spending on services to help young families and children between birth and five years old relative to many European nations, especially in northern Europe, as a key reason why Britain scored so poorly for maternal wellbeing.<\/p>\n
The findings show that women are being asked to cope with the responsibilities of motherhood without enough support, said Angela McConville, chief executive of the NCT parenting charity.<\/p>\n
\u201cPregnancy, birth and early parenthood are periods of heightened vulnerability, but significant gaps remain in the care and services offered to women and new parents, particularly after birth.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter birth, women need services that provide localised mental health support, unbiased and evidence-based information, and regular, reliable touchpoints \u2013 from health visitors through to postnatal GP check-ups.<\/p>\n
\u201cInstead, many women encounter a fragmented postnatal care system that is dangerously underfunded and understaffed, leaving them feeling isolated at a time when support is most critical,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Community-based peer support groups would help mothers with low to moderate maternal mental health issues, McConville said.<\/p>\n
Mothers across Europe are experiencing higher levels of stress, cognitive overload and emotional exhaustion today than when it undertook a similar survey in 2011, Make Mothers Matter said. That is the result of \u201cincreased economic insecurity, persistent work-life imbalance, insufficient care infrastructures and the lasting impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, which intensified caregiving demands and blurred boundaries between paid and unpaid work,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n
The Department of Health and Social Care did not respond directly to the findings.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson said: \u201cEvery mother deserves to feel supported when it comes to their mental health, and we are determined to ensure help is there when it\u2019s needed.<\/p>\n
\u201cA wide range of support is available on the NHS for new and expectant mothers, including access to specialist perinatal services, talking therapies and help from health visitors.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are investing more in mental health services with an extra \u00a3688m this year, we\u2019ve hired an extra 7,000 mental health workers, and we\u2019re providing more NHS talking therapies.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Seven out of 10 mothers in the UK feel overloaded and almost half have a mental health issue such as anxiety or depression, new research has revealed. The survey of mothers\u2019 experiences in 12 European countries also found that most of those in Britain still do the majority of household tasks and caregiving work alone,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42912,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[7486,335,6935,22529,22530,3141,572],"class_list":{"0":"post-42911","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-depression","9":"tag-feel","10":"tag-mothers","11":"tag-overloaded","12":"tag-postnatal","13":"tag-research","14":"tag-reveals"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42911\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/42912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}