The 2025 Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Conference, co-hosted by the Australasian Marcé Society for Perinatal Mental Health and the Australian Association for Infant Mental Health (AAIMH), will be held from 4 – 6 September 2025 at the Pullman Melbourne Albert Park, VIC.

The conference program will be of interest to a broad range of individuals and groups including health professionals, researchers, early childhood educators, the community sector, and policy makers. During these three days, we will advance international discussions on evidence-informed care during preconception, pregnancy and the first three years of life, highlighting the role of infant mental health as the foundation for future mental health and wellbeing. Despite the well-documented association between the mental health of infants and that of their parents and other caregivers, these are seldom discussed together with a family-focused lens. This ground-breaking conference will consider the importance of integrating and advancing perinatal and infant mental health care, focusing on the importance of early relational health as well as improving the transition through pregnancy to parenthood for mothers, fathers and other caregivers. 

THEME

The theme for the 2025 conference is “Integrating perinatal and infant mental healthcare: building lifelong foundations” 

To assist with scheduling and program filtering, please choose one sub-theme appropriate to your abstract from the list below:

• Evidence based practices for First Nations and other priority communities
• Prevention: addressing risk factors, screening and early intervention
• State of the art interventions
• Collaboration with consumers and/or working with complex systems
• Identifying and translating theoretical underpinnings of research and/or practice
• Workforce training and development  
• Other

PRESENTATION TYPES

There will be a variety of presentation formats and lengths.
The organising committee welcomes program proposals in formats such as:

Oral presentation – 20 minutes (including question time)
Oral presentations will be grouped by the programming committee into thematically related areas and presented in concurrent sessions. Each presenter will be given 15 minutes to share their work and 5 minutes for Q&A, for a total of 20 minutes. Abstracts submitted for consideration as an individual presentation will be considered for lightning talks or poster displays if not accepted for the individual presentation format.

Lightning talk – 5 minutes (4 minutes and 1 minute for a single question)
Lightning talks will be grouped in the appropriately themed sessions, presented after the oral presentations. We suggest 1 to 4 slides. The 4-minute presentation time will be strictly adhered to.

Symposium – 1.5 to 2 hours including question time
Symposia represent themed groups of oral presentations with or without lightning presentations. As the symposium organiser, you will introduce the symposium (5 minutes) and chair the individual presentations (minimum 4) as well as discussion time at the end. You may also present an oral presentation as part of the symposium that you have organised. Each presentation will comply with the rules of the oral or lightning presentations (see above). An overall symposium proposal is required, as well as abstracts for each presentation (see Submission Requirements below)

Poster presentation – A0-sized poster to be displayed in the foyer for the duration of the conference.
Posters will be displayed in a poster gallery in the conference foyer at the venue. Delegates will be encouraged to visit the poster gallery and interact with presenters during specific lunch and tea breaks, which will be allocated in the program. 

Workshop – half day (3 hours)
Workshops should be interactive with an aim to foster collaboration and knowledge sharing between participants. Workshops should be structured to ensure that goals of the workshop can be realistically achieved in a 3-hour period. As the workshop organiser you can utilise the 3-hour period in many different ways, and you are responsible for coordinating the timing of the workshop. Workshop organisers should act as leaders for the session, guiding participants through activities, and also coordinating PowerPoints if needed, seating and table arrangements, timing, and facilitating the kind of participant involvement you would like.

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS

Oral presentation abstract: 

• Abstracts must be uploaded in MS WORD format and must be prepared using the appropriate template (provided below).
• Abstracts must be no longer than 250 words.
• Talks will be 20 minutes in duration (including question time) and allocated date and time will be sent to you after abstract acceptances are sent out.
• Note that separate templates are provided, with required subheadings, for abstracts describing research and those describing practice, services or programs.
• Please proofread the final document thoroughly before submitting.
• Abstracts matching the requirements must be uploaded via the abstract submission portal no later than 5.00pm (ACST / UTC +9:30) on 2 May 2025.
• All presenters must register for the conference and pay the appropriate registration fee by the early bird cut-off date. If no author is registered by this date, the abstract will be withdrawn from the Conference proceedings.

Lightning talk abstract:

• Abstracts must be uploaded in MS WORD format and must be prepared using the appropriate template (provided below).
• Abstracts must be no longer than 250 words.
• Talks will be 5 minutes in duration. Where possible, question and discussion time will take place at the conclusion of all lightning talks in the session. Your allocated date and time will be sent to you after abstract acceptances are sent out.
• Note that separate templates are provided, with required subheadings, for abstracts describing research and those describing practice, services or programs.
• Please proofread the final document thoroughly before submitting.
• Abstracts matching the requirements must be uploaded via the abstract submission portal no later than 5.00pm (ACST / UTC +9:30) on 2 May 2025.
• All presenters must register for the conference and pay the appropriate registration fee by the early bird cut-off date. If no author is registered by this date, the abstract will be withdrawn from the Conference proceedings.

Symposium:

• Abstracts must be uploaded in MS WORD format and must be prepared using the appropriate template (provided below).
• As per the template, the following will be included in the MS WORD document:
• Overall symposium description (maximum 100 words)
• Each presentation/lighting talk, in the order in which they will be presented (each abstract should be a maximum of 250 words)
• Total duration of proposed Symposium (ideally 1.5 – 2 hours)
• The Chair of the Symposium will introduce the Symposium; this will be 5 minutes in duration and allocated date and time will be sent to you after abstract acceptances are sent out.
• The Chair must be present for the entire duration of the Symposium.
• Please proofread the final document thoroughly before submitting.
• Abstracts matching the requirements must be uploaded via the abstract submission portal no later than 5.00pm (ACST / UTC +9:30) on 2 May 2025.
• All presenters (including the Chair) must register for the conference and pay the appropriate registration fee by the early bird cut-off date. If no author is registered by this date, the abstract will be withdrawn from the Conference proceedings.

Poster presentation:

• Poster abstracts must be uploaded in MS WORD format and must be prepared using the appropriate template (provided below).
• Abstracts must be no longer than 250 words.
• Please proofread the final document thoroughly before submitting.
• Abstracts matching the requirements must be uploaded via the abstract submission portal no later than 5.00pm (ACST / UTC +9:30) on 2 May 2025.
• All presenters must register for the conference and pay the appropriate registration fee by the early bird cut-off date. If no author is registered by this date, the abstract will be withdrawn from the Conference proceedings.
• If your poster abstract is accepted, poster guidelines will be sent to you on 30 June 2025.

Workshop abstract:

• Planned workshops should be of 90 minutes duration, to be presented during the Conference days 5 or 6 September 2025.
• Abstracts must be uploaded in MS WORD format and must be prepared using the appropriate template (provided below).
• Abstracts must be no longer than 250 words.
• Please proofread the final document thoroughly before submitting.
• Abstracts matching the requirements must be uploaded via the abstract submission portal no later than 5.00pm (ACST / UTC +9:30) on 2 May 2025.

ABSTRACT TEMPLATES

If you are sharing the results of a research project, CLICK HERE to download a copy of the abstract template for an individual (practice) presentation or lightning talk (practice) submission.

If you are sharing work that you are doing in your clinical practice or service provision, CLICK HERE to download a copy of the abstract template for an individual (research) presentation or lightning talk (research) submission.

CLICK HERE to download a copy of the abstract template for a symposium submission.

CLICK HERE to download a copy of the abstract template for a workshop submission.

• The lodgement of an abstract does not indicate automatic inclusion in the conference program.
• Abstract receipt and acceptance will be acknowledged to the submitting author.
• Further communication will be with the submitting author only unless otherwise directed.
• Abstracts must adhere to the abstract requirements and be submitted before the call for abstracts close.
• Each abstract must have at least one presenter registered by the early bird closing date. If no presenter is registered by this date, the abstract will be withdrawn from the conference proceedings.
• The abstract submitted will be available for viewing by conference delegates via the conference app and may also be included in a book of abstracts made available to conference delegates as part of the official conference documentation.