Pregnancy is a challenging time for most women, and can affect mood and energy levels, let alone somebody with existing mental health conditions, says Birtwhistle. Clare Dolman, vice-chair of Maternal Mental Health Alliance says, “I’ve worked with women with bipolar disorder who worry about pregnancy because they think they’ll have to come off their medication, and then what happens? Will they become ill or have their baby taken away?”

Recent studies and reports haven’t helped. Last year, a news story claimed that taking antidepressants during pregnancy can alter an unborn baby’s brain development. And a study from the Columbia University Medical Centre in New York looked at mothers and found that some of those who took SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, a type of antidepressant) for depression during pregnancy had babies with disrupted levels of the chemical serotonin, which can affect the brain’s emotional processing centre. Furthermore, the NHS recently stopped prescribing sodium valproate, an epilepsy drug also used as a mood stabiliser, to women of childbearing age unless they signed a form saying they understood the risks involved.

Since the Seventies, around 20,000 children in the UK have been left with varying degrees of developmental delays after their mothers took it while pregnant. It is little wonder, then, that women with pre-existing mental health conditions are in a dilemma as to whether to continue their medication while trying for or carrying a baby.

What is clear, however, is that these issues need to be discussed more openly so that more women can discover the options for those suffering with mental health issues before, during or after pregnancy. “Women need improved perinatal [during pregnancy or in the first year following the birth of a child] mental care services, and with the new funding they will receive it,” says Gregoire.

How it feels to be pregnant when you’re suffering with mental health issues