Mental Health Awareness Week – Connections Are Important For Maternal Wellbeing And Child Health

The focus of mental health awareness week on
“reconnecting” is timely as research published this year
from the Growing Up in New Zealand longitudinal study
reveals the importance of connections with family, friends
and community for maternal mental health and their
children’s development in the early
years.

Growing up in New Zealand is the
largest study of child development in this country and both
parental and child mental health are research focus
areas.

Professor Karen Waldie, a developmental
neuropsychologist from the University of Auckland and
research lead for the Growing Up in New Zealand Psychology
Domain, welcomes the theme of
‘reconnecting’.

“It’s wonderful to see mental
health awareness week focusing on reconnecting, particularly
after the disruptions to our social networks from COVID-19
restrictions in the past couple of years. Evidence from
Growing Up in New Zealand shows that having informal social
supports such as family and friends and connections with
community, as well as formal supports such as healthcare,
are strongly associated with lower risk of depression in
mothers. We focus a lot on maternal mental health because
supporting pregnant women and mothers of young children can
benefit their wellbeing and in turn this is associated with
the health of their children,” said Professor
Waldie.

Research using Growing Up in New Zealand was
published in the Archives of Women’s Mental Health in
February this year, and the longitudinal information enabled
researchers to look at the mothers’ mental health journey
during pregnancy and over the first four-and-half years
after birth.

“I hope this week that families and
friends will make a special effort to reach out to parents
with young babies and offer a helping hand. Communities can
support mothers with babies by offering safe places to
gather. Also, if you are a parent take the opportunity to
send a message to someone you’d like to reconnect with, or
you could try joining a local coffee group or playgroup,”
said Professor
Waldie.

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