Maternal Mental Health Week 2026: What HR & benefits pros need to know

4-10 May marks Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week. Here is why it matters to your organisation, and what meaningful support looks like.

This week is Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week 2026. This year's theme, A Decade of Voices, marks ten years of progress, partnership and lived experience at the heart of perinatal mental health conversations.

It is a milestone worth pausing on. A decade of more women speaking up. A decade of more clinicians listening. A decade of slow but meaningful change.

But for HR and benefits professionals, this week should also prompt a more direct question: what does your organisation actually offer the mothers in your workforce?

Because for too many employees, the gap between need and support remains wide. And that gap has a cost.

What is Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week?

Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week is an annual campaign that runs from 4-10 May. It is dedicated to raising awareness of perinatal mental health conditions, reducing stigma and connecting mothers and families to the support they need.

The 2026 theme, A Decade of Voices, celebrates ten years of the campaign and the power of women feeling empowered to express their needs, feelings and experiences. It recognises the progress made through lived experience leadership, clinical advocacy and growing public awareness.

This year's theme also encompasses Voice of Loss and Healing, recognising that pregnancy loss, including miscarriage, stillbirth and termination for medical reasons, is part of the perinatal experience and deserves the same space, compassion and clinical attention.

How common are perinatal mental health conditions?

As many as 1 in 5 new mothers experiences a perinatal mood or anxiety disorder. These conditions include postnatal depression, perinatal anxiety, birth trauma and postpartum OCD, among others.

These are not rare edge cases. They are a common, clinical reality affecting a significant proportion of your workforce at any given time.

What makes this particularly challenging from an employer perspective is that perinatal mental health conditions frequently go unnoticed and untreated. The reasons are well documented: stigma, fear of being judged as a parent or as an employee, not recognising the symptoms as a mental health issue, or simply not knowing where to turn.

The consequences for individuals, families and organisations can be long-lasting:

• Prolonged absence and delayed return to work
• Reduced engagement and performance on return
• Increased likelihood of leaving employment altogether
• Long-term impacts on child development and family wellbeing

Research consistently shows that 17% of women leave employment within five years of childbirth. Perinatal mental health is a significant and often invisible driver of that statistic.

Pregnancy loss is also a significant and often overlooked workplace issue. Employees who experience miscarriage, stillbirth or other forms of pregnancy loss may face profound grief, anxiety and trauma, yet many feel unable to speak openly about it at work. Ensuring your support offer acknowledges pregnancy loss (not just postnatal conditions) is an important part of a genuinely inclusive approach.

Why do standard employee benefits often fall short for perinatal mental health?

Many organisations believe they have this covered. They point to their Employee Assistance Programme, their mental health first aiders, or their general wellbeing app.

These are valuable. But they are rarely enough on their own.

Perinatal mental health is a specialist clinical area. The conditions involved require practitioners who understand the physiological and psychological complexity of pregnancy, birth and the postpartum period, not just general mental health support.

A new mother experiencing postnatal depression needs someone who understands the hormonal context, the sleep deprivation reality, the identity shift of new parenthood, and the specific evidence-based interventions that work. A generalist counsellor, however skilled, may not provide that level of nuanced, specialist care.

The other challenge is access and timing. Perinatal mental health issues often emerge or escalate outside of working hours, during night feeds or during quiet moments when anxiety peaks. Support needs to be available in those moments, not just during a 9-to-5 window.

What does good perinatal mental health support look like in the workplace?

This week's theme is a reminder that progress begins with being heard. For employers, that means creating conditions where employees feel safe to speak up, and where specialist support is waiting when they do.

Practically, that means several things.

Specialist clinical access (not just signposting)

Employees navigating pregnancy and new parenthood need access to specialist midwives, lactation consultants, women's health practitioners and mental health clinicians who understand the perinatal period. A helpline and a leaflet is not enough.

Proactive support, not just reactive

Waiting for an employee to raise their hand is often too late. The most effective interventions happen earlier, through regular check-ins, structured support pathways and clinicians who follow up proactively rather than waiting to be contacted.

Confidentiality that employees trust

Many employees will not seek support through their employer if they fear it could affect how they are perceived professionally. Support needs to be genuinely confidential and separate from line management and HR to be used effectively.

Continuity across the whole journey

Perinatal mental health does not resolve the moment someone returns to work. Effective support needs to span early pregnancy through to the return-to-work transition and beyond. Fragmented, time-limited interventions miss the moments that matter most.

What should HR and benefits leaders do during Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week?

A Decade of Voices is a celebration of what happens when people feel empowered to share their experiences and when organisations are ready to listen.

HR and benefits leaders are well placed to drive that change inside their organisations. Not by having every answer, but by ensuring the right support exists, that employees know about it, and that the culture encourages people to use it.

That might mean reviewing whether your existing benefits genuinely cover the specialist perinatal care your people need. It might mean working with your communications team to normalise conversations about mental health during pregnancy and the postnatal period. It might mean equipping managers with the language and confidence to check in meaningfully with new parents.

It starts with acknowledging that pregnancy and parenthood are significant health moments, not just life milestones to be managed through a maternity policy.

Learn more about Peppy Pregnancy & Parenthood

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Here are three practical steps to take this week:

1. Listen when someone shares how they are feeling, whether that is a colleague, a direct report or someone in your team
2. Signpost employees to available support services and make sure those services are genuinely specialist and accessible
3. Reduce stigma by talking openly about perinatal mental health in internal communications, manager briefings and benefits materials

How does Peppy support employees with perinatal mental health?

Peppy's Pregnancy and Parenthood service connects employees to specialist clinicians, including midwives, lactation consultants and mental health practitioners with perinatal expertise, throughout pregnancy, birth recovery and early parenthood.

Support is delivered through a confidential app, available whenever employees need it. Employees get one-to-one clinician access, proactive check-ins, structured care pathways and live events with Q&As. Everything is private, personalised and free for employees to use.

Because the most useful thing an employer can offer an employee struggling with their perinatal mental health is not a policy document. It is timely access to a specialist clinician who is ready to help.

Frequently asked questions about perinatal mental health at work

What is perinatal mental health? Perinatal mental health refers to mental health conditions that occur during pregnancy and in the year following birth. These include postnatal depression, perinatal anxiety, birth trauma, postpartum OCD and postpartum psychosis.

How many women experience perinatal mental health conditions? As many as 1 in 5 new mothers experiences a perinatal mood or anxiety disorder. Many cases go undiagnosed or untreated.

What are employers legally required to do around perinatal mental health? While there is no single law specifically covering perinatal mental health at work, employers have a general duty of care under health and safety legislation, and obligations under the Equality Act 2010. Perinatal mental health conditions may qualify as disabilities under the Act, meaning employers may be required to make reasonable adjustments.

What is the difference between baby blues and postnatal depression? Baby blues are common in the first few days after birth and typically resolve within two weeks. Postnatal depression is a clinical condition that lasts longer, is more intense and requires specialist support.

How can employers support employees with postnatal depression? Employers can support employees with postnatal depression by offering access to specialist perinatal mental health clinicians, creating a culture where employees feel safe to disclose how they are feeling, providing flexible working arrangements where possible, and ensuring line managers are trained to have supportive conversations.

This Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week, Peppy is proud to stand alongside the national conversation and the clinicians, advocates and lived experience leaders who have spent a decade making perinatal mental health impossible to ignore.

To find out how Peppy supports pregnant employees and new parents in your workforce, book a call with our team.