How to Help Someone with Postnatal Depression: A Practical Handbook to Postpartum Depression and Maternal Mental Health in the First Year

If you are watching your partner, daughter, sister or friend struggle through postnatal depression (PND), it can leave you feeling powerless and unsure how best to help. This book shows you how to best support your loved one in this overwhelming and frightening time.

Specialist maternal mental health psychologist Dr Jenn Cooper first explains what PND is and what it might look like. In many cases, the initial challenge is identifying that your loved one is struggling with something more than the 'baby blues'. Often mothers simply don't have the capacity to notice that what they're feeling is beyond the 'normal'. So, that is where you, as their support system, come in – with the benefit of some distance and objectivity that will allow you to see more clearly whether mum might be struggling.

Dr Cooper then moves on to equip you with practical strategies to help your loved one, drawing on insights from mums with lived experience of PND. Through the advice in this book, you will learn how you can play a vital role in your loved one's recovery and, ultimately, help them enjoy motherhood in the way they deserve.

Counselling psychologist Dr Jenn Cooper has experience in working with a wide variety of mental health difficulties and specialises in maternal mental health. She uses a number of therapeutic approaches including Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Person-Centred Therapy to support individuals through their difficulties. She uses her personal experience of the challenges faced by new mums and her professional insight to work towards improving maternal wellbeing and mental health across a variety of platforms.