Welcome to the EPA 2022 Interactive Programme 

Organised by the EPA Section on Women, Gender and Mental Health. Anxiety disorders affect a large proportion of pregnant and postnatal women with systematic reviews estimating a prevalence between 10 and 20 % with higher rates in lower and middle income countries compared to high income countries. There is increasing evidence that anxiety disorders in the perinatal period may have a wide range of adverse consequences, and that they may impact on pregnancy outcomes and the quality of the mother-infant interaction and alter the trajectories of the child’s later behavioural development and mental health. The first presentation will critically review these findings. The second presenter will describe her own experience of perinatal obsessive-compulsive disorder during childbearing, her treatment and recovery. She will also report on setting up a successful charity that is promoting peer support, greater awareness and research into maternal OCD. Fear of childbirth in it’s severe form can impact on women’s daily functioning whereas tokophobia is a specific phobia that is rare but can be so overwhelming that childbearing is avoided. The third presenter will discuss recent findings on the prevalence of these conditions and what is currently known about their adverse consequences and effectiveness of interventions. Although several percent of women develop posttraumatic stress disorder following childbirth it has received little attention. The third speaker will present data from a study on risk factors for PTSD following childbirth and it’s association with the mother-infant relationship, depression and other putative consequences.