Shropshire Council’s library service has launched ‘Reading Well for families’, a new collection supporting the mental health and wellbeing of families during pregnancy and the early years (from conception to age two).
This evidence-based book collection provides crucial mental health support for parents, carers, and their wider networks mental health and wellbeing during the first 1,001 days of a child’s life. The collections have been bought with donations from the Friends of the Libraries groups in Shrewsbury, Ludlow, Oswestry, Bridgnorth, Market Drayton and Church Stretton.
The Reading Well for families collection, developed by The Reading Agency in partnership with Libraries Connected and Society of Chief Librarians (SCL) Cymru, recommends helpful reading on topics such as parental wellbeing, perinatal mental health problems (including anxiety, depression, OCD, and birth trauma), and coping with loss (including miscarriage, stillbirth, and neonatal death).
James Owen, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for housing and leisure, said:
“It is great news that this collection will be available to residents in Shropshire through our amazing library service, providing information on a range of health and wellbeing topics for families to support them if required.”
Library support manager Annabel Gittins said:
“We are grateful that our libraries’ Friends Groups have agreed to support us to include these within our book stock. All the Reading Well collections are very well received by our communities and partners and this is an important resource to help parents and carers experiencing mental health problems to know that they are not alone.”
The launch of Reading Well for families responds to an urgent need for accessible perinatal mental health resources. In England, monthly referrals for perinatal services have risen dramatically by 443% in the last eight years, from around 1,400 referrals a month in 2016 to more than 7,600 in 2024.
At least 1 in 5 women experience mental health problems during pregnancy and after birth, with anxiety and depression being the most common serious maternity health considerations affecting 10-15% of women.
Reading Well is a high-impact community intervention that delivers quality-assured information endorsed by health professionals. Previous Reading Well collections have shown remarkable success, with 91% of users finding their Reading Well book helpful, and 92% of health professionals reporting that the programme increased the range of support they could offer.
Reading Well for families joins the broader Reading Well Books on Prescription programme, which includes lists on mental health for adults, children and teens, and dementia. Since the programme’s inception, more than 3.9 million Reading Well books have been borrowed across England and Wales, supporting individuals in managing their health and wellbeing through the power of reading.
The books
The booklist includes titles addressing various family experiences, such as:
- You the Daddy: The Hands-On Dad’s Guide to Pregnancy, Birth and the Early Years of Fatherhood by Giles Alexander (Vie)
- Hello Baby, Goodbye Intrusive Thoughts: Stop the spiral of anxiety and OCD to reclaim wellness on your motherhood journey by Jenny Yip (New Harbinger)
- My Black Motherhood: Mental Health, Stigma, Racism and the System by Sandra Igwe (Jessica Kingsley Publishers)
- How to Help Someone After a Miscarriage by Clare Foster (Trigger Publishing)
The books can be borrowed for free. The collection is available in different formats including physical books and eBooks. There are six collections within Shropshire Libraries and the books can be requested from any branch.
A list of recommended digital resources is available to support the core booklist and offer additional information and support. The resources are listed at https://readingagency.org.uk/get-reading/our-programmes-and-campaigns/reading-well/reading-well-for-families/
Visit our website at www.shropshire.gov.uk/libraries/. For all enquiries, please contact: [email protected]
Further information
About Reading Well:
Reading Well is a national Books on Prescription programme delivered by The Reading Agency in partnership with Libraries Connected and SCL Cymru as part of the Public Library Universal Health and Wellbeing Offer, with funding from Arts Council England and Welsh Government. The programme helps people understand and manage their health and wellbeing using books endorsed by health professionals and experts with lived experience available from public libraries.
About The Reading Agency
The Reading Agency is a UK charity that inspires social and personal change through the proven power of reading. We work with individuals of all ages, communities and trusted partners to share the transformative benefits of reading for happy, healthy and thriving lives. The Reading Agency reaches over two million people a year but with a UK population of over 67 million that’s not nearly enough. We want to get more people fired up about reading because everything changes when you read.
Get in touch today to find out more about what we do and to help us on our mission.
www.readingagency.org.uk | @readingagency
