With the current trend towards increasing differentiation of the range of perinatal maternal mental health disorders into more distinct subcategories, the prevalence and impact of maternal anxiety, both as symptom and syndrome, has emerged as a factor warranting closer scrutiny.

When our Maternal Mental Health Team was first established as a specialist regional service in 1998, entry criteria excluded women with a primary diagnosis of anxiety disorder. Despite this, since that time the Team has become increasingly aware of the considerable morbidity associated with maternal anxiety, and the complex, often confounding, and frequently co-morbid relationship between postnatal anxiety and depression.

As a consequence, we are currently seeking additional funding to enable us to extend our entry criteria to incorporate women with postnatal anxiety or anxiety/depression states, who might have been excluded previously. Currently this group receive support from primary health care (GP) services, where timely delivery of best-practice psychological and pharmacological treatments is not guaranteed. We believe the significance and impact of anxiety on maternal confidence, satisfaction, and esteem, and possible longer-term effects on family functioning and well-being to date have been relatively under-investigated, and deserve more comprehensive examination.

This paper expands on these issues, and makes a case for research, as well as clinical and funding attention to be given to maternal anxiety in its various manifestations.