Action on Postpartum Psychosis (APP) is a UK charity. We’re here to make sure mums, parents and families are supported through postpartum psychosis – a severe, but treatable, form of mental illness that occurs after having a baby and affects 1400 new mums in the UK each year.We offer information and peer support, facilitate ground breaking research, raise awareness and campaign for improved services. Our life changing peer support network helps women and families affected by postpartum psychosis feel understood, supported and less isolated.

My name’s Rich Baish, and I’m on a mission to help save as many lives as possible in honour of my late wife Alex.

In September 2022, my life reached a moment where it felt complete. Alex had just given birth to our second child, Rosie, three and a half years after we welcomed Freddie, my best mate, into the world. We
had everything we could have dreamed of.

A month to the day after Rosie was born, Alex took her own life, after a short but intense battle with what we now know as post-partum psychosis. It left me, her family and friends, devastated.

Alex was the most thoughtful, selfless and caring wife, mum, daughter and friend you could have wished to meet. No one deserves to go through the mental torture that Alex did, but least of all her. This is why I refuse to let this moment simply pass by as just an extremely sad time for our family. I owe it to Alex to create a legacy which will help save lives by raising awareness of post-partum psychosis for
new parents, and parents-to-be, and supporting a fantastic charity called APP; Action on Postpartum Psychosis.

In May, I will be cycling with a group of friends from Glasgow, where Alex’s mum Janet was born, down to Henry Box School in Witney, where she went to school and worked as a Maths teacher for twelve
years.

That’s 475 miles over five days, almost 100 miles a day, and to give you some context, I’m not a cyclist and haven’t done any concerted exercise in about 20 years, which on one hand makes it trickier, but on the other hand, I like to think it means that I’ve got loads of energy stored up…

I know it’s ambitious, but I have a target of raising £50,000 for APP.  £50,000 could enable us to do significant work towards our goal of ensuring perinatal healthcare professionals and antenatal educators are aware of the symptoms of postpartum psychosis, know what to do if a mother presents with these symptoms, and are able to share this knowledge with women and families during pregnancy.

Donating is one thing, and I’d be forever indebted to anyone who is able to contribute financially, but even by the end of this, if more people become aware of what post-partum psychosis is, it will
still be progress.

Alex has already left an amazing legacy: as a teacher, and I’m hoping this is another legacy for which we can be even more proud of her.

Alex left the most positive impact on me, and I will be forever thankful to her for the life and family she has given me.

Postpartum psychosis is a severe, but treatable, form of mental illness that occurs in the first days or weeks after having a baby. Most people have never heard of the illness until they or their loved one is affected, yet around 1400 women in the UK are diagnosed each year. Symptoms (including hallucinations, delusions, confusion, mania, depression, anxiety and unusual behaviour) can happen ‘out of
the blue’ to women without previous experience of mental illness and can get worse very quickly.

For women who experience postpartum psychosis, their partners, friends and family, it can be hard to find high quality information about the symptoms, causes and treatment. Urgent care is needed to protect the safety of the mother and baby: suicide is the leading cause of maternal death in the UK.

Action on Postpartum Psychosis (APP) is the only UK charity dedicated to supporting women and families affected by postpartum psychosis. It is run by a fantastic team of people with personal experience, academic researchers and expert health professionals.

APP works to increase awareness and understanding of PP, its symptoms, management and impact among health professionals and the general public. They work in partnership with universities to facilitate research into all aspects of PP; provide high quality training and specialist information for healthcare professionals; campaign for improved services; and work to raise awareness and break down the stigma that can surround a PP diagnosis.

Antenatal Education Campaign

We would like the money you raise to support our antenatal education campaign, aimed at antenatal educators and all professionals who have contact with pregnant women and their partners. Our YouGov survey in 2022 showed that just 6% of expectant parents hear about PP at their antenatal class. We plan to work with antenatal educators, women and families to create new resources aimed at informing health professionals about PP and helping professionals talk to women and families about postpartum psychosis in the antenatal period. These resources will be freely available to download from our website. We will run a targeted social media / media campaign
to raise awareness of these resources and the need to talk about postpartum psychosis to pregnant women and partners.

Health professional Training & Awareness-raising

We would also like to use some of the funds raised to help raise awareness of APP’s health professional training.  The funds will help us reach GPs, psychiatrists, midwives, health visitors, MBUs and perinatal teams with information about APP’s training.

We would like to organise an annual ‘Alex Baish Memorial Lecture’ for the next 5 years. This would be a 1-2 hour online lecture aimed at healthcare professionals. It would be a free, open lecture to enable access for as many people as possible. The first lecture would be aimed at GPs and primary health care professionals.  APP would invite expert speakers to talk about the symptoms and signs of PP, leading GPs with a special interest in PP, as well as academics to discuss the latest research developments. We would give women and families with lived experience the opportunity to tell their stories and raise awareness. We would promote the lecture widely and follow up each
lecture by sending resources and further information to all participants.