New Beginnings
New Beginnings is a community-based group intervention program designed for mothers who are experiencing adjustment and / or mental health difficulties in the first year after birth during the postnatal period.
The group is led by experienced clinical psychologists and mental health nurses from the Women and Newborn Health Service, Mental Health Service.
The program is 10 weekly group sessions which run for two and a half hours. There is a free onsite creche where babies and toddlers can be cared for while participants are attending the group. The group is currently run in a variety of community settings in the northern suburbs.
Program content
The New Beginnings group program includes evidence-based interventions for the perinatal period drawn from cognitive behavioural therapy, dialectical behaviour therapy, mindfulness-oriented principles as well as attachment theory.
Topics that are covered during the group session include:
- self-compassion
- assertive communication
- unhelpful thinking
- emotional regulation
- expectations of parenthood
- mother-infant relationship
How can I be referred for the program?
The program is for mothers living in the North Metropolitan Health Service catchment.
Please speak with your primary health care provider (GP) or child health nurse to discuss your suitability for the program.
Contact Women and Newborn Health Service, Mental Health Service on (08) 6458 1521 or email WNHS.MHS.NewBeginnings@health.wa.gov.au for further information.
Research
We are conducting research about the mental health experiences of postpartum mothers via an anonymous statewide online survey.
If you are a consumer parenting a newborn or infant less than two years old, we would like to hear about any mental health difficulties you experienced postpartum and invite you to participate in our survey.
We appreciate and value your time – the survey takes about ten minutes to complete.
We hope that by integrating feedback from consumers across the state about their lived experience of postpartum mental health, it will improve the design of the New Beginnings program and ensure that it is locally relevant.
Our overall aim is to send the New Beginnings program to appropriate services across Western Australia so it can be accessible for postpartum women across the state.