The importance of the relationship between parents is frequently underestimated by those designing and developing services to support parents in bringing up their children. Instead, the primary focus of recent family support initiatives in the United Kingdom has been on improving parenting skills. This article describes the outcomes of a project designed to maximize the effectiveness of parenting support to vulnerable families through sensitizing the workforce of a community‐based adult mental health agency to take account of the parental couple in providing postnatal support groups, parenting workshops and relationship counselling. Evaluating outcomes from these services suggests that a couple orientation adds significant value to the effectiveness of parenting support.

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MumsAid is a non-profit organisation providing free counselling for women experiencing mental or emotional difficulties in pregnancy or after having a baby. Founder and director, Miriam Donaghy, discusses the successes MumsAid has had throughout its first year.