ABSTRACT
This chapter is about working with couples and partners, which can be really beneficial when a couple is struggling with fertility issues or has experienced the loss of a baby. The chapter begins by exploring how beneficial it can be to have the partner in a session as a way for the partner to ask questions, allay their fears, talk through some of the prevalent myths, and to increase knowledge and understanding of maternal mental illness. The chapter then moves on to working with couples, and uses brief client vignettes to describe some ways in which couples work can be helpful. It explores how we can help couples with parent/infant bonding, and that couples work can be useful as a way of helping the couple to reconnect after a particularly difficult joint experience, such as infertility or termination for fetal abnormality.
