“I feel I have gained so much confidence in understanding the influence nutrition has on mental health, especially during the perinatal period. I now feel confident in opening up these conversations, my myths busting, and exploring more nutritious options.”
- Jacklyn, CMSPS Practitioner*
A recipe for change:
Supporting maternal wellbeing by investing in nutrition
In a nation where a quarter of women grapple with mental health issues during and post-pregnancy, the need to nurture both maternal and infant health and wellbeing has never been more pressing.
As the UK’s leading voice on the link between nutrition, brain health and behaviour, Think Through Nutrition identified the importance of supporting new mums and mums-to-be in making healthy food choices.
Picture a mum, balancing the challenges of raising multiple children.
She's dealing with diagnosed mental health issues, and struggling to make ends meet each month.
With a schedule packed to the brim, she barely has a moment to spare, let alone to dive into the world of nutrition or understand the advantages of eating healthily.
Working hands-on with wellbeing practitioners and the perinatal women they support, we’ve created a unique but grounded approach that understands the everyday realities for many women. Find out how we helped to turn a lack of resources and understanding into achievable, bite-sized advice that has already made a significant difference to real women’s lives.
This case study explores our work to date with Cheshire & Mersey Specialist Perinatal Service (CMSPS), highlighting some of the challenges, solutions and outcomes of our work.
Making nutrition a priority
Our overall goal with this project is to embed healthy habits into families to help empower them to make more healthy choices for their long term benefit. This almost always starts with mum.
The brain is the hungriest organ in the body, it demands more nutrients than any other organ. So there are two important aspects when considering brain health and nutrition for families. Firstly, nourishing baby and secondly, nourishing mum.
Once baby has been conceived, ensuring mum consumes adequate nutrients is key to preventing brain defects, abnormal behaviour, neuropsychiatric disorders or visual impairments.
Food preferences start to be formed in utero, and the biggest influence on what a child eats is what they see their parents or carers eat (PMID: 29857549).
Nourishing baby starts even before conception.
The 12 months prior to pregnancy is the time to enhance nutrition for optimal egg and sperm quality.
Continuous data & feedback measuring the impact of the programme
Nutrition champions and changed behaviours
“Eating well is attainable - education is key to better understanding healthy food choices.”
- Madeleine, CMSPS Practitioner*
Think Through Nutrition has built up a strong relationship with CMSPS, and going forward, we hope to be able to serve up:
A 12-week programme
utilising our digital
learning platform
LANAH
A large-scale longitudinal nutrition study on improving maternal & infant health outcomes
Further expansion of our network of NHS Trusts and perinatal departments
The CMSPS team now provides ongoing nutritional support to pregnant women and new mothers with mental health concerns, strengthening their commitment to promoting wellness through diet. We are developing low-cost nutritious recipes and sourcing affordable food options, and have established a framework for collaboration with other NHS Trusts and perinatal departments across the UK.
Learn more about our nutrition campaigns and their impact on over 100,000 lives at our website, or contact us at info@thinkthroughnutrition.org for more information.
“The positive impacts on maternal wellbeing through nutrition are clear, empowering both practitioners and mothers and driving significant change. With a solid blueprint for future initiatives, we aim to extend our reach and improve the health of mothers and children everywhere.”
- Tahani Saridar, CEO at Think Through Nutrition
* To protect the privacy of the individuals that have provided testimonials to this case study, their names, photos, and identifying details have been changed.
Working with Cheshire & Mersey Specialist Service (CMSPS)
Enter Cheshire & Mersey Specialist Perinatal Service (CMSPS) - an important local team providing mental health assessment and support for local women and birthing people, who are experiencing moderate to severe mental health issues. The team there has an appetite for learning but when it came to nutrition, there was a gap. Working closely with the team we identified the need for staff training and resources that would empower front line staff, working daily with the women we identified as most in need of nutritional support, to speak confidently about nutrition, to signpost effectively, set goals and offer ongoing support.
Rebecca Dixon* is a Physical Health and Wellbeing Practitioner at CMSPS and explained how she struggled with lack of existing resources around nutrition, specifically for mums-to-be and new mums.
Already extremely busy in her role, finding time to source or create these resources herself was a challenge. Rebecca works with women like Sara*.
Sara has mental health issues, has experienced trauma in the past and struggles with her weight. She has multiple children and most of her time is spent caring for them. Unsurprisingly, the importance of nutrition had never really crossed her mind, and for her, ‘eating healthily’ was simply associated with boring and unappetising salads.
Rebecca, now a healthy eating advocate and a go-to nutrition champion within her team, weaves conversations about the benefits of eating well into sessions with all the women she works with.
She is able to work with women to set small, manageable goals backed by insight. The resources make it easy to check back on key facts and information and give the women a guide to follow and something to work towards between sessions.
“I feel I have gained so much confidence in understanding the influence nutrition has on mental health, especially during the perinatal period. I now feel confident in opening up these conversations, my myths busting, and exploring more nutritious option.”
- Jessica, CMSPS Practitioner*
The real success of this programme can be showcased by the positive impact it’s already having on many of the women and their families that CMSPS work with.
Sara’s story is one of a real ‘mind-shift’ in terms of how she thinks about food. Working with Rebecca, Sara overhauled her diet by keeping a food diary, prioritising breakfast for herself (as well as her children), planning shopping lists, cooking meals from scratch and freezing leftovers.
After a number of months, Sara now has more energy, feels happier and is really proud of the changes she’s made. And, as a bonus, she’s lost over 10lb. Of course Sara’s story is only one of many in the region. The CMSPS team are applying their nutritional knowledge to a vast range of challenges faced by perinatal women, such as mood, energy, sleep.
A framework for learning and continued support
Further training opportunities to the CMSPS professionals
