Your emotional wellbeing and mental health
Guidance on maintaining your emotional wellbeing and mental health during the early years of parenting, offering information and support to help you navigate challenges and access appropriate resources.
Perinatal mental health conditions
'Perinatal' means the period of time covering your pregnancy and up to roughly a year after giving birth.
Women can experience any kind of mental health problems during and after pregnancy, but there are some that are particularly common or are specifically linked to pregnancy and childbirth including:
- perinatal depression
- perinatal anxiety
- perinatal OCD
- postpartum psychosis
- postpartum PTSD
South Cumbria Perinatal Mental Health Support
Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust is the provider of specialist perinatal community mental health and inpatient perinatal mental health care in South Cumbria. They have a Community Service that supports women with severe and/or complex mental health issues in the perinatal period.
North Cumbria Perinatal Mental Health Support
The North Cumbria Community Perinatal Mental Health Team specialises in the assessment, diagnosis and short-term treatment of women affected by a moderate to severe mental health illness in the preconception, antenatal and postnatal period. The team promotes well-being during pregnancy, preventing relapse and assisting with birth planning.
Support services
For more advice and tips to support your mental health during pregnancy and beyond, have a look at:
- Tommy's: Emotional changes in pregnancy
- The NHS website: Mental health problems and pregnancy
- PANDAS: Information and support for parents affected by perinatal mental illness
- The Happy Mums Foundation: has a number of local support groups running online and in-person across Cumbria.
Health and Wellbeing Team
The Health and Wellbeing Team provides health coaching to help you address any health and wellbeing issues that you may have. We'll support you to develop a plan to address issues that influence your health and wellbeing.
To make a self referral or find out more information visit:
Qwell: A digital mental health platform
Adults across Westmorland and Furness can access free, anonymous and confidential mental health support 24 hours a day, 365 days a year from 1 April 2026.
Qwell is an interactive digital mental health platform, where users can access a range of support online including:
- connecting online with qualified professionals via drop in and pre-booked sessions
- moderated community support - talking to someone with similar experiences
- self guided resources - articles and interactive tools
Qwell offers flexible, clinically moderated support designed to reduce barriers to accessing mental health support. The service is free to use with no waiting lists, no referrals and no thresholds, providing immediate access whenever it is needed.
Free courses
Our Learning Zone has free online learning workshops and courses for you to access in your own time.