Introduction to Perinatal and Infant Mental Health

About this subject

• What you'll learn

  On completion of this subject students should be able to achieve the following learning outcomes:

  1. Define the fields of infant and perinatal mental health, and describe their history, and theoretical and philosophical underpinnings.
  2. Explain the importance of considering the mental health of parents and their babies and children concurrently.
  3. Describe the normal development of infants during foetal life and the first year of life.
  4. Discuss the normal psychological processes of the transition to parenthood.
  5. Identify the range of mental health problems that are most relevant to the perinatal period and infancy; the associated biological, psychological and social risk factors in the pre-conception, pregnant and postnatal period for the mother, the father and the infant/s; and signs and symptoms of mental illness in adults, babies, and small children.
  6. Describe the range of treatment approaches to perinatal and infant mental health problems, and demonstrate basic knowledge of psychopharmacology in pregnancy and postpartum.
  7. Identify current social and ethical issues in the field, and relate learning to key articles in the perinatal and infant mental health literature.

• Topics covered

• Description

• Assessments

• Textbooks

• About University of Notre Dame Australia

Entry requirements

Part of a degree

To enrol in this subject you must be accepted into one of the following degrees:

Elective

• UND-MHA-GCE-2025 - Graduate Certificate in Mental Health
• UND-MHA-GDI-2025 - Graduate Diploma of Mental Health
• UND-NUR-GCE-2025 - Graduate Certificate in Nursing
• UND-NUR-GDI-2025 - Graduate Diploma of Nursing
• UND-NUC-MAS-2025 - Master of Nursing (Coursework)

Additional requirements

No additional requirements

Study load

0.125 EFTSL

This is in the range of 10 to 12 hours of study each week.

Equivalent full time study load (EFTSL) is one way to calculate your study load. One (1.0) EFTSL is equivalent to a full-time study load for one year.

Find out more information on Commonwealth Loans to understand what this means to your eligibility for financial support.