World Mental Health Day is on 10 October, and this year the World Federation for Mental Health has chosen the theme "Lived experiences heard: real voices, real change", putting a focus on how people's experiences should inform the way mental health services are designed and delivered. This feels particularly relevant to maternal health. Pregnancy, birth and postpartum bring significant change to a woman's physical health, relationships, routines and sense of identity. Mental health is a major part of that picture, although it is not always treated that way.

In almost every area of professional life, feedback loops are a given.

You make a decision. You watch what happens. You adjust. Even in roles with unusually long horizons such as a multi-year product build, a market entry, a company turnaround… there is eventually a moment of reckoning. A point where you find out if you got it right. The cycle of do, assess, adjust, repeat is so deeply embedded in how many of us work that we stop noticing it, it just becomes the rhythm of competence.

Motherhood doesn't work like that.

Pregnancy and postpartum are often described as transformative, and they are. But transformation rarely happens in isolation. For generations, motherhood was experienced in community: surrounded by other women, shared wisdom, and a natural network of support. Today, many women move through this journey feeling more alone than ever.

You’re not meant to do this alone.