The Trust has partnered with local services in East London, and Luton and Bedfordshire respectively to launch a new maternal mental health service. Ocean (Offering Compassionate and Emotional Support for those living through birth trauma and loss)

This service will provide support for individuals experiencing psychological distress related to miscarriage, medical termination, neonatal death and stillbirth. It will also offer support to those who receive news of foetal abnormality during pregnancy, and after foeticide or medical termination. It will support people with issues directly related to and following traumatic birth experience or stemming from their perinatal experience.

This can include issues arising from assisted pregnancy, IVF, or LGBTQ+; women who experience significant fear or phobia related specifically to pregnancy and childbirth. For example, fear of giving birth, undergoing examinations. They can also support in situation relating to parent-infant separation during the first year after birth due to children’s social care involvement.

In East London, the service will be jointly provided by the Trust, Barts Health NHS Trust, Homerton University Hospital Foundation Trust and the charity Maternity Mates. It launched on 18 November.
In Luton and Bedfordshire, the service will be jointly provided by the Trust and in partnership with Bedford Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and went live on 18 October.