There’s a lot of baggage around mental health, and the mental health of expecting and new parents is no exception.

Too many people are still afraid to talk about perinatal anxiety and depression. Too many people don’t know the signs and symptoms, or where to seek help if they’re struggling. Too many people are afraid to reveal what they’re feeling or delay seeking help because of fear of being seen as bad parents.

We want expecting and new parents and their families to feel they can be open and honest about their feelings. As a community, we need to ‘get real’ about perinatal anxiety and depression.

This is what PANDA Week 2019 is all about!

Here’s how you can help:

• Encourage open and honest conversations about the mental health of expecting and new parents in your community or workplace
• Host a PANDA Day event. Raise awareness about perinatal anxiety and depression and postnatal psychosis, and raise funds for PANDA along the way!
• Share our information, stories and PANDA Week 2019 graphics with your networks.

We’ve come a long way since 2005, when PANDA launched the very first Perinatal Anxiety & Depression Awareness Week. However we still have a long way to go to raise community awareness about these illnesses and break down the stigma that gets in the way of people seeking help.

Together, we can make a difference by ‘getting real’ about perinatal mental illness this November.

This article was posted on behalf of Perinatal Anxiety and Depression Awareness.