Safeguarding plan - anyone know what this involves

[Seashellsrule]

i mentioned at my booking in appointment that I suffer/have suffered from anxiety and low mood and that I was feeling a bit low in this pregnancy.

My midwife explained that as I had scored ‘4’ to the mental health part of the booking in she would have to do a safeguarding plan. She didn’t say much else other than it was for their protection and mine.

i am not sure what a safeguarding plan involves does anyone know? She was in a rush and didn’t seem to want to tell me much more than she did.

im concerned that my anxiety has been taken way out of proportion and I do not class myself as a safeguarding risk.

I don't have any experience of this OP but that midwife sounds extremely insensitive. I would make another appointment as soon as possible and ask to go through it all again in detail

IME it’s around making sure that you are safeguarded ie you know who to contact when you need to, you are accessing support or you are about to, you have good protective factors like money for food, people around you etc.

This is to safeguard YOU and how to keep you safe. So do you have a good support network, who you would contact if you needed further support, how you help yourself with your mood, how others can help you, protective factors that stop you doing things to harm yourself etc xx

I had absolutely terrible perinatal anxiety, was medicated and needed a lot of support, referral to perinatal mental health midwife etc. 'Safeguarding' for 'their protection' was never mentioned. It was about supporting me, and my needs and trying to avoid PND. For me, once baby was in my arms, all those awful feelings melted away and I was discharged from all the services but it was good knowing they were there.

I am sure it's all for your own good and support is put in place in case things get worse. It's good that there is support and planning on place for you. Hopefully you don't need it.

I honestly wouldn't worry about it. A safeguarding plan is basically a sheet of paper on which there will be written who you can contact and get support from if you are feeling low/need support. It will likely be reviewed when the baby is born and any new services that you can use will be added and if everything is fine a few months down the line, it will be 'closed', which just means it wont be reviewed with you again.

Yeah, she has not gone about it the right way or explained adequately (I suspect she doesn't know much about mental ill health and feels anxious about supporting people struggling). It'll be a support plan as people above have said. Even if they talk to social work (which I'm sure is your worry) social work will not see any major concern here from what you've told us.

Thank you all for your reassurance. My main worry was that they would involve a social worker which is seemed insane.

I have a son and had the same anxiety’s first time around and had extra midwife support (the perinatal team wouldn’t even take me on as I was classed too ‘low risk’) so was wondering why safeguarding had been mentioned this time around..