At least 1 in 4 women experience mental health problems in the perinatal period. Without treatment, this can have a devastating impact on those women and their families. Despite this, most people will not qualify for specialist NHS support and those who do face waits of up to 16 weeks to see a therapist. We see increases in demand for our all our services every year, from people of all genders. We are currently on track to receive approximately 200 self-referrals in 2025.

Frome Birth Talk provides free and low cost, easy to access, short-term counselling for all pregnant, new and bereaved parents in our catchment area who request it. Our interventions help stop mild to moderate anxiety and depression growing into more complex, destructive problems. Our monitoring shows that our counselling reduces risk factors by 70% and improves wellbeing by at least 50%. It allows parents to not only function, but thrive and contribute to the wellbeing of our community.