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We are a teaching hospital – Supporting women's mental health during pregnancy and beyond

Posted: 8 April 2022

Picture of clinical staff performing a scan on a pregnant person
A mandatory in-house training programme and additional training for our midwifery team is supporting women’s mental health during pregnancy and beyond.

Since 2016, 180 midwives every year are trained through an in-house perinatal mental health education programme which has helped develop important knowledge and skills within the team. (Perinatal is defined as the period during pregnancy or the first year following the birth of a child.)

The training provides critical guidance on understanding different types of perinatal mental health problems and disorders, and how to identify women at risk of developing serious mental health problems.

The midwifery team carefully screen every woman at their first consultation and routinely check their mental wellbeing at all subsequent appointments.

The team are led by a consultant obstetrician, specialist perinatal mental health midwife and the Lavender Team (a team of highly trained midwives providing high quality and streamlined specialised care for mothers) as well as a group of highly trained midwives.

Together they help equip midwives with the knowledge and skills to provide exceptional care for new and expectant mums with perinatal mental health conditions.









  1. For more information, please contact the communications team on: 01923 436280 or email: westherts.communications@nhs.net. For out of hours media enquiries please call the Watford General Hospital switchboard on 01923 244366 and ask for the on call communications manager.
  2. West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust serves people from across Hertfordshire, north London and further afield. It operates from three hospitals; Watford General, St Albans City and Hemel Hempstead. The trust has a catchment area of over 500,000 people and is one of the largest employers locally, with around 5,000 staff and volunteers.
  3. For more information about our hospitals, visit www.westhertshospitals.nhs.uk. You can also join our followers on Twitter (twitter.com/westhertsNHS) and find us on Facebook (facebook.com/westhertsNHS).