Hello. I’m Dr Estelle Verdi, Principal Counselling Psychologist and Service Lead for the West Yorkshire Maternal Mental Health service – Paths. The aim of the service is to fill the gap not already met by other services and provide support to women experiencing moderate to severe or complex mental health difficulties, including trauma relating to their birth experience, fear of birth itself (tokophobia), and trauma relating to pregnancy and baby loss. 
I’ve been part of Perinatal and Specialist Trauma services throughout my career, building on my knowledge derived from working in each clinical area. I have held research roles, contributing to the growing evidence base of what we know to be effective in working with these groups of people. My role now is a combination of clinical leadership, provision of direct therapy interventions and supporting a trauma informed culture. Areas of quality and governance are key features of my daily work.
I am passionate and excited to now be leading a service specifically aimed to meet the needs of women and birthing parents with moderate to severe mental health needs as a result of birth trauma. Since starting my role in February, I have been busy working with the team to set up and launch our birth trauma pathway which went live on the 1 July.
Next week is birth trauma awareness week which aligns with our service aims, to prevent and reduce the impact of birth trauma on women and their families. Many people associate childbirth with positive emotions however the reality is that this time can be linked with feelings of uncertainty and challenges, as well as hope and joy. At least 1 in 4 women find some aspect of their birth traumatic. 1 in 25 of these women will develop post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). We know that PTSD is only one of several mental health difficulties which can follow a traumatic birth experience. Low mood and anxiety can also arise.
Having space to share these experiences with a professional can provide opportunities for people to reflect on what has happened to them and where they would like to move forward to in life. We provide a service which combines specialist psychological and midwifery interventions to help people to do this. With evidence based psychological therapies in a supportive environment, the impact of mental health conditions can be reduced, empowering women to regain their wellbeing and have more space to hold their baby in mind.
As a team we often talk about how fortunate we are to do this work and we look forward to meeting those who access our service.
Paths is now open to birth trauma referrals from professionals only
The Paths team are hosting online drop-in sessions for colleagues working in health and care settings across the region to find out more about the service. These will be on MS Teams on 17 and 18 July. If you would like to learn more about our developing Paths service or to join the drop-in sessions please email: Westyorkshirepaths