POSIE

This research project is focused on reducing ethnic and social inequalities in perinatal mental health care and preventing maternal deaths — including suicide, which is the leading cause of maternal death within a year after giving birth.

We aim to understand why women from different ethnic, social, and regional backgrounds experience unequal access to care and outcomes, and to design practical, culturally safe solutions that improve support for mothers experiencing severe mental illness (SMI) after childbirth.

What We Will Do

• Understand inequalities: We will use national health data to identify how ethnicity, age, and region affect care and outcomes for mothers with postpartum severe mental illness.

• Listen to lived experiences: Through creative photovoice workshops in Manchester, Sheffield, London, and Oxford, we will hear directly from mothers and families about their experiences of perinatal mental health care.

• Co-design better care: Working with mothers, carers, and professionals, we will develop a culturally safe care pathway that meets the needs of diverse communities.

• Test and evaluate: The new care pathway will be implemented and tested in sites across the North and South of England to evaluate its effectiveness and value for money.

• Create lasting impact: Findings will inform national guidance and help scale up the pathway to other parts of England, ensuring sustained improvements in perinatal mental health care.

Our Approach

People with lived experience are at the heart of this project. Peer researchers will co-facilitate workshops, support analysis, and help share findings — ensuring that mothers’ voices shape every stage of the research.

Our ultimate goal is to make perinatal mental health care more equitable, culturally sensitive, and effective — improving safety, experience, and outcomes for mothers and their babies across England.

This project is funded by the NIHR and will run from 2025-2028