Perinatal mental health: midwives and health visitors working together.

The Healthy Child Programme (HCP) focuses on the care offered to pregnant women and children in the first five years of life. It is delivered by a range of professionals, with the health visitor as lead. Effective delivery of the HCP depends on services for children and families being fully integrated, and partnership working between different agencies on a local level seems to be the key to success. This article focuses on how effective implementation of the HCP facilitates the recognition and care of women with anxiety, mild to moderate depression and other perinatal mental disorders during both the antenatal period and after the birth.