New resource launch: Perinatal and maternal mental health services for Gypsies and Travellers – improving inclusion and access in West Yorkshire

Leeds GATE are pleased to announce the launch of our maternity resource for health care providers and maternity support services to educate and increase understanding around working with Gypsy and Traveller families.

For Gypsy and Traveller families, having children and the process of bringing them up is often at the centre of their lives and communities. There is so much care and knowledge passed down from generation to generation.

However, these communities face extreme health inequalities and more specifically, we know Gypsies and Travellers face much poorer birth and maternal health outcomes. There is an excess prevalence of miscarriages (29% compared with 16% in a matched comparison group), stillbirths, neonatal deaths, and infant mortality. (Aspinall, 2014)

Hearing Gypsy and Traveller voices and experiences of these services to feed back directly into systems is vital to taking action and creating change, which is what our new resource aims to do.

Over the last two years, we have carried out research with our members through site outreach and one-to-ones, workshops and activity sessions, an online survey and engagement through our Baby Week events each November.

It includes findings from a research project delivered by Leeds GATE alongside Thrive By Design (a West Yorkshire based social enterprise that closed in 2025).

Most importantly, the voices of our members involved in this work feature heavily throughout, which have co-produced and guided the work.

The resource includes background information on Gypsy and Traveller communities in the UK, and most specifically for those across West Yorkshire. We hope it provides more context as to how people may experience your service and how they want to be supported and engaged with to tackle health inequalities faced by Gypsy and Traveller people.

Anyone working  in maternity, maternal mental health services and more generally with families, are encouraged to use this easily accessible information, to increase inclusion, access to information and the access for these communities to these services.

You can find and download the new resource here Perinatal and maternal mental health for Gypsies and Travellers guide for services.

You can also find it in our resource library here.

If you work in a service and would like to reach out to us with any questions or requests, please reach us on contact@leedsgate.co.uk.