North Tasmanian Stephanie Trethewey on the importance of Perinatal Mental Health Week

"I guess I wasn't prepared for the unique challenges that come with raising kids in a rural area," Ms Trethewey said.

"I had already found the transition to parenthood really difficult - I definitely suffered from postnatal depression in the newborn months, but that dark cloud started to lift when I had some support."

However, the move to rural North Tasmania left her without the traditional support networks of friends, family, mental health specialists, and other mothers.

"I lost that village," she said. "I felt incredibly alone, incredibly isolated. And Sam, being a farmer, as so many farmers do, was working seven days a week, just working flat out growing our beef business."

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Ms Trethewey is among thousands of new Australian mothers every year who have struggled to access support and mental health services in the months before, during and after their pregnancy.

As part of Perinatal Mental Health Week, Gidget Foundation Australia has launched an online tool that maps out the support services of over 45 perinatal organisations across the country.

By pooling the resources of dozens of specialised services nationwide, the organisation hopes to bridge the access gap that many women in remote areas experience.

It's estimated about 1 in twenty new mums will be affected by perinatal depression, along with about one in 10 dads, which equates to roughly 100,000 parents across the country each year.

"There is not one cause for perinatal mental health challenges nor is there a specific type of person it impacts," Gidget chief executive Arabella Gibson said.

"It's crucial that families are aware of the support."

But despite the statistics, perinatal mental health screening at hospitals is far from universal in Australia.

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For Ms Trethewey, her own experience with postnatal depression encouraged her to find some kind of solution.

"I had this moment when Elliot was about nine months old: he was crawling around on the floor next to me. and I thought, if they say it takes a village to raise a child, where the hell is mine?" she said.

It led her to establish Motherland, a not-for-profit organisation that connects rural women experiencing isolation during and after childbirth through personalised online support groups.

The business has gone from strength to strength, with a successful podcast and Ms Trethewey winning this year's AgriFutures Rural Women Award. But the gap between rural access to adequate services remains wide.

In a survey conducted by Motherland, 53 per cent of rural mums still did not have access to a mother's group, and 70 per cent said they had suffered from some level of postnatal depression.

"I think it just goes to show that there's a huge gap in our maternal health care system, when it comes to supporting rural and remote women," Ms Trethewey said.

"A mother's group shouldn't just be a luxury that women in the city have."

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As one of the organisations participating in Gidget's online resource, chief executive of Canberra-based Perinatal Wellbeing Centre Dr Yvonne Luxford said she wants to destigmatised the issue.

"We're expected to just do it well, innately, we're meant to just get it and to be able to do it without any problems," Dr Luxford said.

"There's a lot of guilt and shame involved in admitting that actually, you're feeling really unwell, and you need help - we need to break down that stigma."

She said making impactful change meant raising awareness, not just within homes and families, but within clinical settings.

"The pregnancy classes that people go through often focus on birthing and feeding and helping your baby sleep," she said.

"They don't focus very much on perinatal mental health, and realistic expectations around what parenting is going to be."

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