Perinatal mental health

When you have completed this course, you will be able to:

• explain the normal changes in mood that can occur following childbirth
• describe the clinical characteristics of the different psychiatric conditions that occur in pregnancy and the postpartum period
• describe the management of serious psychiatric disorders through pregnancy and the postnatal period including the options for treatments in pregnancy and breastfeeding
• identify the risks associated with psychiatric disorders
• understand the need for multidisciplinary working and a close relationship between obstetric and perinatal mental health services.

Dr Rosinder Kaur (2022)

This course is intended to help clinicians gain core knowledge for O&G training and the MRCOG examinations. It can also be used by O&G consultants to refresh their knowledge of the area or for teaching.

The content of this course relates to the following Capabilities in Practice (CiPs) and key skills:

CiP 1: Clinical skills and patient care
Relevant to all key skills

CiP 6: Developing self & others
Commits to continued learning

CiP 9: Emergency gynaecology and early pregnancy
Manages complications of treatment
Manages other early pregnancy complications

CiP 10: Emergency obstetrics
Manages concerns about fetal wellbeing

CiP 12: Non-emergency obstetrics
Relevant to all key skills

Further details about each CiP can be found within the O&G Core Curriculum 2024 Definitive Document, available here.

Bambridge GA, Shaw EJ, Ishak M, Clarke SD, Baker C. Perinatal mental health: how to ask and how to help. The Obstetrician & Gynaecologist 2017; 17:147–53.

National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. Antenatal and Postnatal Mental Health: Clinical Management and Service Guidance. CG192. London: NICE; 2014 [Updated 2020].

National Institite for Health and Care Excellence. Intrapartum Care for Women with Existing Medical Conditions or Obstetric Complications and their Babies. NG121. NICE; 2019.

Nick Nicholas. From one of the authors of ‘Understanding the Mental Capacity Act 2005: a guide for clinicians’. The Obstetrician & Gynaecologist 2011;12:137.