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Infant mental health (IMH)

We support parents, carers and professionals to make sure that every baby, toddlers, and pre-school child in Leeds has the best possible start in life.

Toddler with parent and guardian playing with Healthcare Professional

About our service

We support the important relationships that babies, toddlers, and young children have with the people who care for them, so they can have the best possible start in life. We help families and the people who work with them from ‘conception to reception’ through pregnancy and the early years, until children start school at age five.

What is infant mental health?

The words infant mental health can sound confusing. Infant mental health refers to how babies and children feel and how they learn to deal with their feelings.

When babies and children are comforted and cared for, they feel safe to explore their world, to play and to learn. When parents understand their babies’ and children’s signals and respond, they start to learn how to manage their feelings and build strong relationships. Babies and children who have safe and loving relationships are more able to enjoy the world around them. It helps them grow up happy and healthy!

Who is the infant mental health service for?

From pregnancy through to the child’s early life to the age of five.
Families who are registered with a GP in Leeds

Who are the Infant Mental Health team?

We are a small team who work across the city of Leeds.
We are all health professionals who have experience and training in helping parents, and carers to support their babies and toddlers with their feelings and relationship.

Referrals to IMHS

Only certain health professionals in Leeds can refer a baby, toddler or unborn baby and their parent or carer to our service (if the parent agrees). This is called a closed referral system. There are two steps: first, the professional makes a phone call to us, then they send a referral form.

Before you request a duty call and make a referral

Please read our guidelines:

One minute guide to an IMH duty telephone call

If you are a professional working in the local perinatal mental health service, please read these specific guidelines:

Guidance for duty calls with perinatal mental health and infant mental health

Please read our guidelines before booking in a duty call. We would always encourage you to speak with the family in the first instance if you think our service could be helpful or you would like some general advice. To book a “duty slot” with an IMH practitioner please contact us on 0113 8430841.

For parents and carers

If you’re worried about your relationship with your unborn baby, your baby or toddler, please reach out and speak to your midwife, your 0 to 19 specialist public health nurse (health visitor), your GP or any other professional you might be working with (for example, perinatal mental health service). We can work together to see whether our service could be helpful or what other support might be available.

For professionals

Please see the previous tab “Before you make a referral”. If you have any questions, please contact our team on 0113 8430841.

When making a referral, please choose from the following forms

Service information

How we can help families

You might have already spoken to a health professional (such as your midwife or health visitor) about your relationship or bond with your baby or toddler. They may suggest our service if:

You don’t feel close or connected
Being a parent makes you feel confused or upset
You have worrying or upsetting thoughts about your baby or toddler

We are here to help you and your baby or toddler feel safe, calm, and connected.

Difficulties in the early relationship

We care a lot about helping parents, carers, and people who work with families so that every baby, toddler, and young child in Leeds has the best start in life. We want babies and children to feel happy and safe. To help with this, we support their grown-ups to build strong and loving relationships with them. Having a baby or toddler can be fun and special, but it can also be tricky.

Sometimes, it’s hard to feel close to your baby or toddler. This can happen before they’re born or in their early years. There are lots of reasons why this might happen:

Difficulties in pregnancy
A traumatic birth
Difficult experiences of being parented when we were children
Loss and bereavement
Difficulties with our mental health (such as low mood or anxiety)
You might be having worrying, upsetting or confusing thoughts about your unborn baby, baby or toddler

What we offer

We meet with you and your baby or child to see how we can help.
We can come to your home, or meet you somewhere nearby, like a children’s centre or health centre.

When working with pregnancy and infants under the age of two, we can meet and think about what might be helpful and how long we might be working together for. We’ll decide this together. Our support is aimed at helping you understand your baby’s feelings and how you feel about being their parent.

We can help you build a strong and loving bond with your baby, supporting their feelings as they grow.

We might:

Watch how your baby shows their feelings, their likes and dislikes
Talk about how you respond to baby and why
Use things such as video or play to show the strengths in your relationship

We’ll always make a plan with you to help you be the parent you want to be.

When working with toddlers and preschoolers, we meet for three sessions. Our support is aimed at helping you understand your toddlers’ feelings and how you feel about being their parent.

We can help you build a strong and loving bond with your toddler, supporting their feelings as they grow.

We might:

Watch how your toddler shows their feelings, their likes and dislikes
Talk about how you respond to baby and why
Use things such as video or play to show the strengths in your relationship

We’ll always make a plan with you to help you be the parent you want to be.

We help people like health visitors, midwives, mental health workers and social workers by giving them training and advice to support the families they work with.

Have a look at our IMHS film to find out more and to hear from some of the families we have worked with.

Read our leaflets for more information:

What families have said about our service

“I’ll never be able to thank you enough for getting me through this pregnancy safely and helping me give Austin* all the love I have for him without anything clouding it anymore”.

“I was in a deep hole with no escape. I felt tormented by my own child and my mind. It’s hard to communicate this to your family because you feel judged, so I bottled my problems up”.

“The first few sessions I wasn’t sure but then the proper sessions began to help. It helped when (infant mental health practitioner) sat on the floor because I wasn’t looked down on and it helped me to do that too. We looked at what my baby’s cues and what he was telling me, and I understand him much better now. I know his cues better than other people do. My mood and his mood have improved; it’s had a knock-on effect on my mental health and other areas of my life. I said before I started this that my baby was more angry than happy but now, he is more happy”.

“It’s nice to have someone to speak to, it’s not like counselling but you open up to someone about how you feel, and they are talking with you and your child.”

“It has really helped to have visual aids that I can hold in mind in everyday life when I face challenging situations with my toddler.”

Resources

Below are some further resources and links that can support you in getting to know your baby, toddler or preschooler whilst on your parenting journey:

Useful links

Books

What every parent needs to know: Love, nurture and play with your child by Margot Sunderland (2016)
The emotional life of the toddlerBook by Alicia F. Lieberman“Alicia Lieberman is a toddler-whisperer, illuminating the art and science of this important period of life in informative ways that will enable parents to gain important insights into the mind and behaviour of their child. With clear and concise summaries of research findings highlighting developmental milestones of this age woven with practical examples families face in everyday life, this second edition of her classic work is a gift to parents and children alike.”
—Daniel J. Siegel, M.D., Clinical Professor, UCLA School of Medicine

Podcasts

Talking sense with Dr Martha

Talking Sense with Dr Martha is a parenting podcast hosted by Dr. Martha Deiros Collado, a clinical psychologist and mother. The podcast offers a thought-provoking perspective on child behaviour, aiming to help parents make sense of their children’s actions, quirks, and communication patterns. Dr. Martha provides practical advice and strategies for navigating the challenges of parenthood, with a focus on understanding children’s development and fostering positive relationships.

The podcast covers a wide range of parenting topics, including: