ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights the sobering fact that maternal mental illness is common worldwide. It highlights the wide-reaching impact on the mother, the child, the family and the world economy, focusing on both the monetary and emotional costs. It offers statistics of prevalence and shows that maternal mental illness is the leading cause of maternal mortality in pregnancy. Research has consistently only focused on the postnatal period and on depression. Yet this illness has a far wider scope and encompasses the prenatal period through many years post birth. The breadth of illness is also a great deal wider than research shows and encompasses maternal trauma, postpartum psychosis, extreme distress, stress and anxiety.
