ABSTRACT

The purpose of this paper is to set out informal, provisional and comprehensive butconcise guidelines for mother-infant (perinatal) mental health (psychiatry), as an area ofspecialisation. It is informal in the sense that the authors are clinicians and researchersfrom many different nations, who share a common goal and vision, speaking on their ownbehalf and not with the backing of any authority or society. It is provisional in theexpectation that it can be improved by crit- icism and new research findings. It is acomprehensive sum- mary of the development of the specialty, its core knowledge andrecommended investigations and interventions. It is concise (under 6,000 words, takingless than an hour to read) in order to increase readership and facilitate translation. Noattempt has been made to parade the evidence for these suggestions, because thedocument would have been too long to translate, and for many to read. Instead, draftswere circulated for criticism by those included in the authorship, resulting in a consensus(finalised by the three principal authors), providing a framework to guide serviceprovision, clinical practice and research. The full list of authors, from 33 nations, is givenin the postscript. They include mother-infant (or parent-infant) and perinatal adult or childpsychiatrists and those with a special interest; mother-infant, perinatal and forensicpsychol- ogists; psychiatric nurses; the founders of Postpartum Support International andthe Association for Postnatal Illness; representatives of social work and obstetrics and themanagement of these services, and research scientists working in the field.