Getting pregnant if you have a mental health condition

Advice on what you should do if you're trying to get pregnant and have a mental health condition, or did in the past.

If you have a mental health condition, or did in the past, being pregnant can make you unwell again.

Severe mental health conditions such as psychosis, schizophrenia or bipolar disorder are more likely to make you unwell again.

Everyone’s mental health journey is different, but whatever happens, you will have a team of people supporting you. This may include midwives, GPs and mental health specialists.

Speak to a GP:

  • if you have a mental health condition and are worried about getting pregnant
  • if you’re taking medicine for a mental health condition and you want to get pregnant

If you're trying to get pregnant or have found out you're pregnant

Do not stop taking medicine for your mental health condition without speaking to a GP – this can make your condition come back or get worse.

Treatment

The 2 types of treatment for mental health problems in pregnancy are talking therapies and medicine.

If you take medicine while you’re pregnant your doctor will explain how this may affect your baby. Try not to worry – you’ll be offered the safest medicine at the lowest dose that will still work.

Accessibility Tools

Your choices will be saved as a non-identifying cookie. This means that each time you load a webpage from this website, your chosen accessibility options will be applied. These cookies will last for 28 days before resetting.

Text To Speech

When text to speech is active, you can click the play button to hear the whole sites content read aloud. You can also highlight a section of text and press play, to hear only the highlighted text.

Settings

1
1

Translate

Choose a language from the Google provided selector below.

Screen Mask

A screen mask is a reading tool which follows your cursor. It allows you to remove distractions from around the page and gives a clear area of focus.

Text Size

Use these icons to increase, decrease or reset the size of the text throughout the site.

Contrast

Change the colour of text and the background of the site with the selectors below. This removes images and makes the content across the site easier to read.