Clinic delivers well-being support to mums-to-be

Pregnant women experiencing issues such as anxiety and low mood can receive support through a new dedicated well-being clinic.

Preparing for a new addition to the family can often be an exciting yet daunting time for parents, whether it is their first time or not.

The introduction of the well-being clinic in Singleton Hospital, Swansea, aims to help reduce any anxiety or distress mums-to-be may be experiencing during their pregnancy.

The new service offers women six sessions where they can talk about any issues or worries they may have before learning about various coping techniques.

The sessions are run by Swansea Bay’s first perinatal mental health specialist midwife, Ann-Marie Thomas (pictured).

She said: “We found that we had a great and robust service for women who have or develop severe mental health issues, with our perinatal mental health service.

“What we noticed was that there was a larger group of pregnant women with mild to moderate mental health issues but there was no dedicated perinatal mental health support within maternity.

“We all build up coping strategies for our mental health throughout our life.

“Pregnancy is a time where perhaps those coping strategies aren’t enough anymore because our social lives and relationships are affected.

“Very often people can get overwhelmed and emotions can start to become heightened and anxiety and low mood can start to be a problem.

“We introduced the well-being clinic which provides listening spaces for these women.”

As well as monitoring their physical health and their baby’s development, midwives can often ask expectant mothers about their well-being too.

If they are deemed as needing additional support, midwives can refer them to the well-being clinic.

“The midwives are able to ask the women about their mental health which helps to understand how they’re feeling,” Ann-Marie added.

“Then there is a scoring criteria which helps midwives determine whether any additional support is needed.

“Women can come into the clinic at any point during their pregnancy.”

Ann-Marie goes through another scoring checklist with each woman to be able to understand how they are feeling and what issues or worries they are experiencing.

The clinic then begins with an introductory session before later exploring mindfulness, calming techniques and the affect stress has on the body.

It is hoped that by the end of the six sessions, each woman’s levels of distress and anxiety will have noticeably reduced.

Ann-Marie worked with hospital-based psychologists to produce a pregnancy and well-being booklet that is used in tandem with the sessions.

She said: “We do an introductory session where we get to know each other and get comfortable.

“Then we explore things such as overwhelming emotions, the link to the mind and body and talk about what stress and anxiety looks like in our bodies.

“We want them to tune into what their bodies feel like when they are stressed.

“Then we move onto mindfulness, which is where we aim to train our bodies to feel a different way and use grounding techniques to help calm down.

“We talk about showing kindness to yourself and self-soothing.

“Then we talk about what has helped them at home to feel calm and safe and how they can replicate that outside of their home."

In the short time the clinic has been running, Ann-Marie has already received plenty of positive feedback and has seen a noticeable reduction in the women’s distress levels week-on-week.

“One thing that always comes up in the feedback is how the clinic provides a non-judgemental space where women feel they can say anything,” Ann-Marie added.

“It really helps women to feel seen and heard during their pregnancy.

“We revisit their scores from the beginning of the clinic and what we have been seeing is that their levels of distress have been falling.

“If we can get mums to get to a point where they take ownership of their calmness and stress levels, we know that has a direct impact on the baby too.

“We hope this service acts as an intervention which prevents women from becoming mentally unwell and needing specialist services.”

It’s not just expectant mothers who have been helped by the well-being clinic either, with Ann-Marie also offering guidance and support to midwives too.

She said: “The consultation space can help to support midwives too.

“Staff can come to me and ask questions about patients they are dealing or have dealt with and I can advise on how they can help them.

“It’s a learning space so I can offer advice around what to ask or look for if women seem anxious or tearful during appointments.

“Hopefully it will help to upskill staff and build their confidence to then have those conversations with patients too.”