Dr Elsa Du Toit

Dr Elsa Du Toit I am passionate about empowering women and their families during one of life’s most immersive journeys - pregnancy, postpartum and beyond.

With over 15 years of expertise exclusively focused on perinatal psychiatry.

Led by Dr Elsa du ToitWith 25 years in medicine + 15 years dedicated to perinatal psychiatry, this program is grounded i...
05/02/2026

Led by Dr Elsa du Toit
With 25 years in medicine + 15 years dedicated to perinatal psychiatry, this program is grounded in real clinical practice, not theory alone. Dr du Toit brings a rare combination of deep psychiatric expertise and holistic insight into maternal and family health.

Ever feel like perinatal mental healthcare comes with information overload? Conflicting studies, competing opinions, high-stakes decisions… it’s enough to make any clinician pause.

That’s exactly why we created ARC – a framework that brings clarity where it’s needed most:

Awareness → Risk assessment → Clinical decision-making

ARC helps you move from feeling overwhelmed to making confident, structured decisions, even when the evidence keeps changing.

Want to see ARC in action and learn how to apply it in real-world practice? Join us in the Mindful Maternal Healthcare Foundation Program – designed for busy professionals like you.

📅 Book your spot here:
https://www.drelsadutoit.com/Mindful-Maternal-Healthcare-for-professionals

04/02/2026

Pregnancy Awareness Week: when we care for mothers’ health - including mental health, we protect babies and the future.

“Extremely beneficial… improved my prescribing knowledge.”That’s how one clinician described my workshops last year and ...
03/02/2026

“Extremely beneficial… improved my prescribing knowledge.”

That’s how one clinician described my workshops last year and it’s exactly why this is one you don’t want to miss. If you’re supporting women through pregnancy and postpartum, this is about sharpening your clinical confidence, not adding more noise.

Ever feel like perinatal mental healthcare comes with information overload? Conflicting studies, competing opinions, high-stakes decisions… it’s enough to make any clinician pause.

That’s exactly why we created ARC – a framework that brings clarity where it’s needed most:

Awareness → Risk assessment → Clinical decision-making

ARC helps you move from feeling overwhelmed to making confident, structured decisions, even when the evidence keeps changing.

Want to see ARC in action and learn how to apply it in real-world practice? Join us in the Mindful Maternal Healthcare Foundation Program – designed for busy professionals like you.

📅 Book your spot here:
https://www.drelsadutoit.com/Mindful-Maternal-Healthcare-for-professionals

Mindful Moms is about empowering women to care for their health, including mental health, during pregnancy and early mot...
02/02/2026

Mindful Moms is about empowering women to care for their health, including mental health, during pregnancy and early motherhood. When mothers feel informed, supported, and confident, families grow stronger too. Visit my website to learn more. www.drelsadutoit.com

Pregnancy Awareness Week After a month of sharing clinical insights (30 Days of Pregnancy Prescribing Essentials), I wan...
01/02/2026

Pregnancy Awareness Week
After a month of sharing clinical insights (30 Days of Pregnancy Prescribing Essentials), I want to pause and share something more personal.

My “why” for working in perinatal healthcare is simple: I know the value of belonging.
Of having people who show up.
Of being supported when life feels demanding, uncertain, and beautiful all at once.

When we strengthen a mother’s health, including her mental health, we don’t just care for one person. We strengthen her relationship with her baby. Support partnerships.
And help build the foundation of families.

Pregnancy is not only a medical event.
It is a relational, emotional, and generational turning point.

This Pregnancy Awareness Week, let’s remember:
Caring for women during the perinatal period is the foundation strong families are built on.

30/01/2026

Day 30 of 30 Pregnancy Prescribing Essentials: Collaborative care improves outcomes.

When doctors, midwives, lactation consultants, and other perinatal healthcare professionals give conflicting advice, it increases anxiety and uncertainty for pregnant patients, especially around treatment plans and medication decisions.

When we align care, share responsibility, and collaborate across disciplines, patients benefit. They are supported by a unified team with pooled expertise, consistent messaging, and clearer decision pathways.

Collaborative care strengthens the perinatal team. Speaking with one coordinated clinical voice improves trust, reduces confusion, and leads to better maternal and infant outcomes.

The Mindful Maternal Healthcare Programs place risk–benefit analysis, shared decision-making, and interdisciplinary collaboration at the core Helping clinicians navigate complexity with clarity and confidence.

Ever feel like perinatal mental healthcare comes with information overload? Conflicting studies, competing opinions, hig...
29/01/2026

Ever feel like perinatal mental healthcare comes with information overload? Conflicting studies, competing opinions, high-stakes decisions… it’s enough to make any healthcare professional pause.

That’s exactly why I created ARC – a framework that brings clarity where it’s needed most:

Awareness → Risk assessment → Clinical decision-making

ARC helps you move from feeling overwhelmed to making confident, structured decisions, even when the evidence keeps changing.

Want to see ARC in action and learn how to apply it in real-world practice? Join us in the Mindful Maternal Healthcare Foundation Program – designed for busy professionals like you.

📅 Book your spot here: https://www.drelsadutoit.com/Mindful-Maternal-Healthcare-for-professionals

29/01/2026

Day 29 of 30: Prescribing Essentials in Pregnancy. Psychological interventions matter.

Medication is not the only tool we have.
And it should never be the only one we reach for.

There is strong evidence that psychological interventions reduce symptoms, improve coping, strengthen maternal agency, and improve long-term outcomes for both mother and baby.

They are not “add-ons.”
They are not optional.
They are not second-best.

In many cases, psychological care should be offered as first-line treatment.
And when medication is needed, therapy remains a powerful augmentative intervention that improves overall treatment response.

This is what integrated care looks like:
✔ Treating the whole person
✔ Supporting behaviour change and resilience
✔ Empowering informed decision-making
✔ Improving real-world outcomes

Tomorrow we close this series with the final essential: coordinated perinatal care.
Because no woman should carry this alone.

28/01/2026

Day 28 of 30: Prescribing Essentials in Pregnancy: A healthy lifestyle matters.

Medication and therapy do not exist in a vacuum. Always assess the foundations:
• Sleep
• Nutrition
• Movement
• Social connection and support

These factors directly influence treatment outcomes and can significantly enhance the effectiveness of pharmacological and non-pharmacological care. Ignoring them undermines even the best prescribing decisions.

At Mindful Moms and Mindful Maternal Healthcare, we teach decision-making grounded in holistic, biopsychosocial care, not siloed symptom management.

Hope to see you there!
Link in bio.

27/01/2026

Day 27/30: Prescribing Essentials in Pregnancy
Minimise polypharmacy.

Combination treatment is sometimes necessary to keep patients stable and functioning. But every agent should have a clear indication, defined benefit, and ongoing rationale.

Pregnancy is a trigger for structured medication review:
• What is each drug contributing?
• Is this evidence-based or historical prescribing?
• Does the risk–benefit profile still hold?

Rational perinatal prescribing requires a framework (such as the ARC framework taught in the Mindful Maternal Healthcare Program ) A structured approach helps clinicians to make safer, sensible & confident treatment decisions.

Link in bio.

26/01/2026

Day 26 of 30: Pregnancy Prescribing Essentials

First-line doesn’t always mean best or safest.

If antidepressants didn’t work before, restarting them may increase relapse risk and fetal exposure.

Guidelines aren’t enough.
You need a framework.

That’s why I teach the ARC Framework in Mindful Maternal Healthcare. The same structure I use daily in my perinatal practice.

25/01/2026

Day 25 of 50: Pregnancy Prescribing Essentials

“Doctor, is this safe?” is one of the most common questions in perinatal care. But on its own, it is an incomplete question. The more helpful question is: Safe compared to what?

No single factor, whether a medication or a diagnosis, should be evaluated in isolation. We must always ask what the alternative looks like. What is the risk of leaving the illness untreated? Context matters. It is only by weighing both sides that we can determine whether a particular intervention is likely to increase or reduce risk for a specific mother–baby pair.

This is exactly what we teach inside the Mindful Maternal Healthcare Program: a trusted, structured framework for holistic assessment and balanced risk–benefit conversations, supporting clear and confident clinical decision-making in the uncertainty of perinatal care.

If you would like to strengthen how you guide patients through mental health treatment decisions during pregnancy, you’re welcome to join us. Link in the comments

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