Childbirth

Working towards better understanding of postpartum mental illness to reduce stigma, and improve early identification and treatment.

The time around childbirth can be incredibly challenging for many new parents. It is the period in a woman’s life when they are most at risk of mental illness. This is why we believe it is an important area of research to focus on. Learning as much as we can about the triggers for postpartum mental illness will help us to understand what we can do to identify and treat it more quickly.

If you have experienced childbirth, we are currently running a study to test our postpartum psychosis research assessment tool. We need more people to get involved, even if they have never experienced a postpartum mental illness, in order to make sure it is accurate and precise. Please consider taking part.

Postpartum psychosis

Gathering information to inform our understanding of the environmental and biological triggers of postpartum psychosis.

We have been working on research into postpartum psychosis for over 20 years. We have published in scientific journals, including the first genetic analyses of postpartum psychosis, and worked with collaborators all over the world to better understand this condition.

Our research is now being used to inform the diagnostic criteria for postpartum psychosis, but there is still plenty of work to be done.

About postpartum psychosis

Postpartum psychosis is a rare disorder, affecting around 1 to 2 in 1,000 childbirths, yet it is one of the most severe psychiatric illnesses. It is not officially recognised in current diagnostic systems, and this confusion around its classification has hindered early treatment, diagnosis and research. Most of what we do know is based on research conducted in high-income, Western countries.

Our aim is to tackle this through rigorous research, which we hope will lead to improved standards of care for women and AFAB people.

Our team of clinicians and researchers spans across Asia, Africa, America and Europe, and together we are the International Postpartum Psychosis Consortium. Working together, we hope to improve our understanding of postpartum psychosis across cultures and ultimately improve diagnosis and standards of care.

We are working closely with mother and baby units across the UK to recruit women who have experienced severe perinatal mood disorders during their lifetime.

Our research

Our team, which currently spans six countries and four continents, covers a number of areas. We have conducted cross-cultural public involvement work to understand the differences and similarities between postpartum psychosis in different countries. We have worked together with people with lived experience to develop key priorities for research. We have developed our own research assessment tool to use in postpartum psychosis research and we are also focusing on genetic analyses.

With the invaluable help of our volunteers, we have collected over 800 DNA samples from people who have experienced postpartum psychosis, the largest collection in the world. With this information, we will hopefully be able to look into the biological factors that increase risk for postpartum psychosis and begin understanding how these interact and influence an individual’s experience.

This is a fantastic start but we need more people to get involved with research to better understand the condition. If you have experienced postpartum psychosis, please consider taking part.

Get in touch

Publications

• Yang, J.M.K., Vaiphei, K., Siliya, M., Mkandawire, T., Dolman, C., Heron, J., Wilson, S., Yaresheemi, S., Kitney, D., Bailey, L. and Apsey, C., 2023. Postpartum psychosis: a public involvement perspective across three continents. Archives of Women's Mental Health, pp.1-7.
• Vaiphei, K., Yaresheemi, S., Yang, J.M., Di Florio, A., Chandra, P.S. and Thippeswamy, H., 2023. Formation of a stakeholder group of women with a lived experience of Post-partum Psychoses (PP)–Experience from a perinatal psychiatry service in India. Asian Journal of Psychiatry, 84, p.103592.
• Di Florio, A., Yang, J.M.K., Crawford, K., Bergink, V., Leonenko, G., Pardiñas, A.F., Escott-Price, V., Gordon-Smith, K., Owen, M.J., Craddock, N. and Jones, L., 2021. Post-partum psychosis and its association with bipolar disorder in the UK: a case-control study using polygenic risk scores. The Lancet Psychiatry, 8(12), pp.1045-1052.