Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Perinatal Mental Health Team
Welcome to the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough perinatal mental health team.
Perinatal mental health
We support mums and mums-to-be who are experiencing mental health 
challenges during pregnancy and the first year of motherhood.
We are a multi-disciplinary team of specialist mental health clinicians working across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, which aims to:
- Offer a safe, empathic, and supportive service that holds women and their families’ experiences in mind.
- Work closely with our colleagues in maternity and health visiting, and across the wider community organisations, to develop a seamless, integrated service for pregnant and new mums.
- Increase awareness and understanding of mental health challenges in the local community and help reduce stigma.
Our philosophy
- We prioritise building trusting relationships and being able to work alongside you and your family.
- We believe that we need to consider a family’s needs as a whole during this significant time of change and stress
- We hope to make the future better by targeting support at this critical stage in a family’s growth.
- We aspire to be a team of blended skills and expertise which works creatively, thoughtfully and innovatively.
Our team
We have nurses, occupational therapists, doctors, psychologists, nursery nurses, support workers and social workers in our team and we are all trained to support women with serious and complex mental health difficulties during the perinatal period.
Management team
Nick Warren
Perinatal Service Manager
Julie Hayter
Perinatal North Team Manager
Bethany Kathro
Perinatal South Team Manager
Admin team
Cheryl Quish
Perinatal Deputy Admin Hub Manager
Beena Padmanabhan
Perinatal Senior Admin – north
Kate Taylor
Perinatal Admin – south
Lesley Ann Jarvis
Perinatal Admin - north
Cheryl Bolster
Perinatal Admin - north
North Clinical Team
Dr Rajasekaran Sankar
Perinatal Consultant Psychiatrist – Peterborough
Dr Shimrit Ziv
Perinatal Consultant Psychiatrist - Fenland and Huntingdon
Fiona Ram
Perinatal Principal Clinical Psychologist
Eleanor Gunn
Perinatal Clinical Psychologist
Jana Hanchard
Perinatal Clinical Psychologist
Juli Broder
Perinatal Clinical Nurse Specialist
Debs Murthwaite
Perinatal Clinical Nurse Specialist
Laura Purran
Perinatal Clinical Nurse Specialist
Sarah Morrison
Perinatal Occupational Therapist
Sara Teesdale
Perinatal Occupation Therapist
Emma Draper
Perinatal Mental Health Practitioner
Beverley Ann Walker
Perinatal Mental Health Practitioner
Victoria Anne Parker
Perinatal Social Worker
Linda Donald-Osukah
Perinatal Community Nurse
Emily Murdoch
Perinatal Nursery Nurse
Sadie Burton
Perinatal Nursery Nurse
Tracey Anne Wales
Perinatal Nursery Nurse
Clare Cornforth
Perinatal STR Worker
South Clinical Team
Dr Nikolett Kabacs
Perinatal Consultant Psychiatrist
Jo Peterkin
Perinatal Consultant Clinical Psychologist
Tara Pepper Goldsmith
Perinatal Parent-Infant Psychotherapist
Sarah Archibald
Perinatal Principal Clinical Psychologist
Rachel Clarke
Perinatal Clinical Psychologist
Zoe Scott
Perinatal Clinical Psychologist
Harriet Rowe
Perinatal Psychologist
Emily Scott
Perinatal Specialist Occupational Therapist
Sarah Ennis
Perinatal Clinical Nurse Specialist
Emily Mclaughlin
Perinatal Clinical Nurse Specialist
Courtney Bowen
Perinatal Community Perinatal Psychiatry Nurse
Gabriella Digpal Race
Perinatal Mental Health Practitioner
Sophie Simmons
Perinatal Mental Health Practitioner
Cathrin Przywara
Perinatal Community Social Worker
Carolyn Victoria Gidney-Kelly
Perinatal Community Social Worker
Gemma Bullock
Perinatal Nursery Nurse
Elizabeth Mary Whitwood
Perinatal Nursery Nurse
Thomas Westwood
Perinatal Assistant Psychologist
Eleanor Gardner
Perinatal Peer Support Worker
Our partners
We work closely with obstetricians, midwives and health visitors and PWS to support the families in our care.
Midwives and obstetricians
Specialist mental health obstetricians and midwives ensure women get continuity of care with clinicians who have expertise in supporting those with mental health challenges. They work closely with the perinatal mental health team to support the family as they welcome their baby.
Pre-birth planning meetings encourage joined up thinking between all the people looking after the women and take into account a detailed birth plan made with the women to best support them before, during and after birth.
The hospitals are sometimes able to offer longer stays postnatally to give added support after birth.
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Rosie Hospital, Cambridge |
Hinchingbrooke Hospital, Huntingdon |
Peterborough City Hospital |
| Obstetricians | ||
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Michelle Kemp
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Sangeeta Pathak
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Michael Lumb
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Alison Wilson
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| Midwives | ||
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Kaat de Backer
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Nicky Pearson-Day
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Lesley Edwards
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| Health visitors | ||
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Hilda Beauchamp
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0-19 Healthy Child Programme – health visitors
Health visitors are qualified nurses or midwives with an additional specialist Community Public Health Nursing qualification. We work as part of the 0-19 Healthy Child Programme team to support you in your parenting journey, offering advice on a range of issues including infant feeding, sleep, child development and minor illnesses.
We can offer additional support in the form of listening visits at home for parents experiencing mild to moderate anxiety and depression and other mental health concerns, and we are well-placed to refer you to community-based support groups and other resources to help you feel less isolated. If you have concerns about how you are bonding with your baby, we can support you with reading your baby’s early cues and behaviours, and can offer video-based support to increase your confidence.
We work closely with our colleagues in the specialist perinatal mental health team, and with your GP and midwife to co-ordinate our care in a way that you feel is best. We have a specialist health visitor for family mental health, as well as champion health visitors in perinatal and infant mental health, who liaise with other professionals, and offer training and guidance to all our staff so that you feel confident in the advice and support you receive.
Referrals
We take direct referrals from midwives and health visitors. GPs can refer via the Primary Care Mental Health Service.
Parents and parents-to-be should contact their GPs in the first instance.
For urgent referrals for women experiencing a mental health crisis, please call the First Response Service on the NHS 111 helpline and select the mental health option.
Information for professionals
We offer advice and support to other professionals. You can call our admin team on 0800 952 0060 and leave a phone number or e-mail address and a duty worker will contact you between 9-5pm Monday to Friday.
Professionals can make direct referrals – download this from the bottom of this page.
GPs can refer via the Primary Care Mental Health Service. For guidance see our leaflet: Advice for GPs
For urgent referrals for women experiencing a mental health crisis, please call the First Response Service on the NHS 111 helpline and select option 2.
How we can help
We offer comprehensive and collaborative assessments to all women we take into our service which inform the treatment package we offer.
| For women with pre-existing mental health conditions before pregnancy | Pre-conception mental health assessment and medication advice and reviews |
| For women who are pregnant one or more of the following treatment options may be offered. | Preventative care for those at high risk of becoming unwell |
| Pre-birth planning | |
| Medication advice and monitoring | |
| Co-ordination of care and support from specialist perinatal nurses / occupational therapists / mental health social workers | |
| Psychological assessment and treatment (talking therapies) | |
| For women with babies up to one year old one or more of the following options may be offered. | Ongoing mental health review including medication monitoring. |
| Continued c-ordination of care and support from specialist perinatal nurses / occupational therapists / mental health social workers | |
| Working in partnership with families and children’s care where there are issues of safeguarding or additional needs, including attendance at core group meetings, Child in Need meetings and the Early Help process. | |
| Nursery nurse support with parent-infant bonding and role adaptation | |
| Video Interactive Guidance – an evidence-based video intervention that supports mums and babies to build their relationship and confidence. | |
| Carers’ assessments and some practical support from our support worker | |
| The occupational therapists in our team support mums with adjustment to motherhood, changes to their role and identity and make links in their local communities to support ongoing recovery. | |
| We run perinatal wellbeing groups for post-natal women under our care. | |
| For women who may not currently need our direct input we signpost to appropriate specialist or community services | We work very closely with colleagues in other specialist services and with the wider perinatal network to ensure that there are no barriers to women rapidly accessing our program should they need it. |
| For other professionals | We offer advice, support and training to other mental health teams, health visiting, midwifery and social services |
As a patient, relative or carer using our services, sometimes you may need to turn to someone for help, advice, and support.