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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