Our Journey

IFWIP is a charitable and entirely not-for-profit organisation promoting good health and wellbeing during pregnancy.

The IFWIP website was launched on 20th November 2017 at an event at the House of Commons (UK Parliament) by our Founder and Chair of Trustees, Dr Raja Gangopadhyay, a Consultant Obstetrician from the UK.

Since then we have grown from strength to strength, getting the support of people from all across the world and established a wonderful global network and collaboration.

We are grateful to our Trustees and Board of Advisers for guidance and kind people from all across the world who has inspired and supported us throughout our journey.

We have tirelessly worked mainly in three specific areas:

A) Global Awareness Programme:

Raising awareness of good mental health and wellbeing during pregnancy.

B) Global Pregnancy Wellbeing Programme:

A comprehensive programme for expectant women to improve resilience and mental health and wellbeing through lifestyle modifications and stress management techniques.

C) Global Training & Education Programme:

Training healthcare and allied healthcare professionals/ support staff caring for women during pregnancy (Antenatal Care).

We summarise our journey as follows:

Global Awareness Programme

We raise awareness on the importance of wellbeing during pregnancy to prevent and minimise both physical and mental health complications during pregnancy and post-childbirth period and ensure health and wellbeing of the child in the forthcoming years.

Why is this awareness programme necessary?

Approximately 1 in 5 women suffers from stress and mental health problems during pregnancy.

They can lead to many pregnancy complications and can also influence the health and wellbeing of the baby in the years to come.

Therefore good mental health and wellbeing are vital during every pregnancy.

In spite of the facts, a comprehensive awareness programme is lacking in the world.

As a result, many pregnant women are unaware of different pregnancy-specific factors causing stress, how to identify them at an early stage, and how they can build resilience and coping strategies.

Moreover, every member of society can play their role to support pregnant women (and partners) to ensure good health and wellbeing.

Therefore, our awareness programme is unique and first of its kind in the world.

Whom do we aim to reach?

Our awareness programme involves disseminating information both to pregnant women (and partners) and society at large.

Why we would like to educate every member of the society from all age group and background?

Every one of us can play an important role in our part to promote the health and wellbeing of pregnant women.

For example, we can simply be a good listener to her concerns and challenges as a friend, a member of the family, neighbour, or even on social media (such a Facebook Group).

As a responsible employer and colleague, you can support her in dealing with work-related stress.

Moreover, the adverse effects of stress and mental health problems can have huge implications for the entire society.

How do we raise awareness?

We raise awareness by sharing scientific information based on research evidence and expert knowledge.

We have taken a unique approach to spread awareness and reach the wider society as follows:

1) Organising public events:

One of our major achievements is to organise an annual event at the House of Commons (UK Parliament), which is the first of its kind in history, targetting the entire society and led by a Consultant Obstetrician.

Read about the historic 2018 event (#HopeDec10) here.

This event was attended by people from all across the UK and abroad.

Reaching over 6 million Twitter impressions on the day (10th December 2018), we created the world’s biggest conversation on wellbeing during pregnancy, engaging and connecting people from all across the world and all walks of life.

We also organised a successful public event with our global partner, World Health Innovation Summit (WHIS) in Carlisle, UK.

2) Online information:

We have worked extremely hard to create high-quality information on different aspects of available at our Resources Page.

These are suitable for every member of the society regardless of their professional backgrounds.

Every article has been extensively researched and written by both by the experts and mothers.

We have covered a wide range of unique topics such as Normal Psychological Changes during Pregnancy, Understanding Stress, and information on Visiting Spa during Pregnancy.

We have also extensively researched the Internet to provide External links to other useful resources.

IFWIP has created a landmark in providing high-quality free and open-access online information on differnt aspects of wellbeing during pregnancy. This kind of comprehensive resource on pregnancy health and wellbeing is rare to find on the Internet. As a result, this has been very well-received from all across the world.

We have shared the information widely through our social media accounts, such as Twitter, Facebook Page, Instagram, and Pinterest Accounts.

We have also created informative videos and shared on our own YouTube Channel.

And…

3) Talks at public events:

We worked with renowned UK music band Eastern Euphony to organise the First-ever Bollywood event in History at the prestigious Beck Theatre (London, UK).

This was attended by about 600 people from all across the country and hugely successful.

Dr Raja Gangopadhyay, Founder and the Chair of Trustees, was invited to speak at some other classical musical evenings:

Sangeet Foundation (Slough, UK, March 2019)

Geetanjali Academy of Fine Arts (London, May 2019):

Click here to read the details

Dr Gangopadhyay was also invited to speak at the following public events:

WHIS event (Newcastle, UK, May 2018)

Indian Chamber of Commerce (Kolkata, India, 2017)

Watford Town Seventh Day Adventist church (Watford, UK)

Henrietta Barnet School, London, UK, April 2019:

a talk for Sixth Form students

4) Participating in Health Exhibitions:

Derby Pride Park Stadium, UK (March 2018)

Market Square, Nottingham, UK (May 2018)

Global Pregnancy Wellbeing Programme

IFWIP along with World Health Innovation Summit (WHIS), is delighted to present a unique world-class Pregnancy Wellbeing Programme based on health promotion, health education and disease prevention model, with a view to achieving significant benefit in both short and long-term health and saving of healthcare cost.

This has been developed based on the fundamental principles of United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 3) which ‘seeks to ensure health and well-being for all, at every stage of life’.

We launched the programme in January 2019. (Click here for details)

Through this programme, we advocate ways to achieve good health and wellbeing during pregnancy through lifestyle modification and stress management techniques.

Please email us (contact@ifwip.org) to join our mailing list for the programme to get all the updates.

Global Training & Education Programme

We provide world-class, comprehensive high-quality training and education for both Healthcare and allied healthcare professionals, working to caring for and supporting women (and families) during pregnancy.

Our approach is to create and deliver the training tailor-made to the individuals and teams (based on their training needs analysis), and we do this through the following:

1. Invited lectures:

Our Founder, Dr Raja Gangopadhyay and other experts are available to provide the training through invited lectures in Schools, Universities, Hospitals, Conferences, Seminars, and different other settings.

Isle of Man (2018)

The Republic of Ireland (2018)

Please read the Press Release

Healthcare Conference London, UK (2019)

“Informative on the holistic need assessing and treating pregnant women. Found it helpful talking about the need to focus on MH throughout pregnancy.”

“Very good explanation of risks, red flags, good communication is vital – I will be contacting Dr Raja to help develop clinics in all hospitals.”

Doula UK Conference, London (2018)

“Consultant Obstetrician Raja took us through the wide-reaching effects of perinatal mental health, from infants in utero to immediate family relationships. He stressed the importance of communication within services supporting mothers and the important care that doulas provide. He had so much to share with us about his passion for improving the current systems that at times it was hard to keep up with him. I have certainly been inspired to read more about his exciting work.” (Siobhan Ridley, Doula UK)

Hertfordshire University, UK (March 2019)

“I asked our midwives for feedback and as expected, they were really delighted with your session! Some comments are: ‘very informative especially regarding mental health medications’, ‘excellent’, ‘enthusiastic’, ‘excellent’, ‘passionate’. All round excellent feedback from everyone in the group, especially re mental health medications (of which not much knowledge beforehand). Thank you so much again and we look forward to welcoming you back soon!”

Hertfordshire University, UK (May 2019)

“I have asked the students to provide feedback on your (Dr Raja Gangopadhyay) session. They were extremely positive about your session and were really pleased that you linked it back to their role as a midwife in supporting women. The other positive aspect was the focus on Antenatal mental health issues as they have felt there was more of a focus on postnatal conditions in previous sessions.”

Birmingham City University, UK (2017)

University of Central Lancashire (UCLan), UK (2017)

2. Workshop and Masterclasses:

We provide tailor-made Workshops and Masterclass on Perinatal Mental Health for Maternity Staff.

We were invited to conduct our first overseas Masterclass in Kuwait in November 2018. This was first of its kind in the Middle East region.

Please find the details of the Kuwait event here.

Recognition

Dr Raja Gangopadhyay was the Finalist for the Zenith Global Health Award 2018 for his work through IFWIP.

Advocacy

We continued our advocacy and campaign for better mental health care in Maternity Units. We met politicians, community leaders, and other prominent members of society.

Andrea Leadsom MP