S3 Ep1: Autism and Perinatal Mental Health with Verity Westgate

Welcome back to the Podcast! The theme of Season 3 is 'celebrating diversity in perinatal experiences' and we kick off by sharing a conversation with Verity Westgate. Verity has worked with Autism Oxford UK since 2022 delivering autism training to community perinatal mental health teams. She was inspired to develop this training after her own experiences being diagnosed as autistic whilst being looked after in one of these teams.In her day job, Verity works as a project manager in clinical research at the University of Oxford, but spends a lot of time as an “expert by experience”, working with NHS England and the Royal College of Psychiatrists amongst others. She is also a PhD student at the University of Exeter; her PhD is looking at the experiences of autistic women and birthing people accessing community perinatal mental health services, aiming to develop recommendations to be used within the NHS. Verity shares her professional and personal experiences with us today. I hope you enjoy the episode!You can find out more about the works of Autism Oxford UK at https://autismoxford.com/Thank you for listening!Join the conversation on Instagram @neurodivergentbirth and at ndbirth.com.