Have you sent your #ShoutieSelfie to raise awareness of Maternal Mental Health?

And it definitely caused a bang! #ShoutieSelfie got #MaternalMHMatters trending in a matter of minutes.  It reached number 6 within the first half hour. Something Emily is incredible proud of: "It's so important that mums, and dads, and those supporting them know about maternal mental health - the symptoms, what to do, and that it's nothing to be ashamed of."

Post-Natal Depression, and other perinatal mental illness (such as the lesser know Post-Natal Anxiety, Post-Natal OCD and Psychosis) effects up to 1 in 5 new mums. Unfortunately, most of these mums will suffer in silence – with only a small proportion speaking out, generally once they are better.

Emily was that 1 in 5. She suffered with terrible PND and PNA after the birth of her son 2 years ago. She says, “Unfortunately for me, like so many other mums, becoming a new mum wasn’t the best time of my life – in fact, it was probably the worst. I was getting only an hour of sleep a night, and this brought on terrible anxiety and depression. I got to the point where even seeing my closest friends for coffee was too much.”

Emily had been a career girl – studying at Oxford university before working at Innocent drinks, so finding motherhood a challenge came as a big surprise, as, she says, it comes to any mum.

Now she is better, Emily wants to make a real difference. She doesn’t want any more women to feel bad for not enjoying motherhood like they expected. She said “if I’d know at the time that it was so common, and that it didn’t make me an awful person, it would have really helped. Once you start telling people you are suffering, it’s amazing how many others open up.”

That is why she launched the #ShoutieSelfie campaign. To get everyone who has known a new mum who has suffered this terrible condition, to post a selfie of themselves shouting that they support mums who suffer.

The tweet also includes a link to a short clip Emily created of three mums talking brutally honestly about their experience of PND. It’s called “I didn’t love him” and can be found here: www.bit.ly/IDIDNTLOVEHIM.

But raising awareness of this awful illness isn’t all Emily is doing. She has also launched MummyLinks, a free website service to help mums meet locally for ad-hoc playdates, securely.

It's a new social health app which aims to get mums outside and meeting others, helping to ward off and beat that ever-increasing condition for new mothers, postnatal depression.

Emily says, “I realised that getting out was hard with a new-born but actually it was the best thing to do. I needed help even with a large support network I had so I can’t imagine what it’s like for mum’s that don’t have that, perhaps because they’ve moved away from friends and family. I’m a firm believer that it takes a village to raise a child.”

Her exclusive website has a queue of mummy’s just waiting to join, spilling over on to a monitored Facebook group, relying on the 3 degrees of separation that at least one person in the group would be able to vouch for a mum wanting to join.

It has now become so big that Emily wants to launch the app as an invitation only facility to get access to meet ups locally across the UK.

With a third of the funds needed to develop the app already reached, Emily would love to make it a reality this summer if the full total can be raised.

“I know that for me, it was meeting new people in my community that really made me enjoy my time at home with my baby. Parents don’t need any more reliance on technology for socialising, they just need to get out there and say hello.”

If you’d like to say hello to the new MummyLinks app, why not visit the Just Giving page here and donate now: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/mummylinks

And if you haven’t sent your #ShoutieSelfie yet take a look at Emily’s twitter (@MummyLinksApp) and get tweeting your support!

Article supplied by Emily Tredget