Mental Health Support For Moms: 71 Percent Have Put It Off, And Time Is The Biggest Reason

Mental health support for moms feels out of reach: 71 percent of Canadian mothers delayed it, and time was the biggest reason. Here is why.

Last updated: 14 October 2026

Mental health support for moms is something 71 percent of Canadian mothers have delayed or avoided, and time is the biggest reason. That comes from a 2026 Ipsos survey of 1,001 mothers, paid for by GreenShield. Time was named by 44 percent of them, cost by 43 percent.

I read that number twice. Not because it shocked me, but because of the reason. The top answer was not “I don’t want help” or “I’m fine.” It was time. 🫠

So here is what I want to do today. I want to look at why the moms who need support the most have the least room to reach for it, tell you about the morning my own brain stopped working in a supermarket, and give you one tiny thing you can do with the ten minutes you do not have.

Why have 71 percent of moms put off mental health support?

Most mothers put it off because the day has no gap in it, and because asking for help is itself another task. In the Ipsos survey for GreenShield, fieldwork ran from 2 to 8 July 2026 with mothers aged 18 to 64 who have children under 18 at home. The margin of error was 3.8 percentage points.

The same survey found that 92 percent of those mothers carry the mental load for their families. The mental load is the invisible work of remembering, planning and worrying for everyone in the house, and I wrote about it in why you carry 71 percent of the mental load and nobody notices.

Yes, the same number shows up twice. No, I did not plan that. 😅

Why is time the biggest barrier to mental health support for moms?

Time came first because a mother’s hours are already spoken for, and support needs a slot that does not exist. The Ipsos and GreenShield numbers (2026) show how the barriers stack up:

• Time: 44 percent
• Cost: 43 percent
• Caregiving responsibilities: 21 percent
• Not knowing where to find the right services: 20 percent
• Services that are hard to access: 17 percent
• No support that fits their identity, experiences or needs: 12 percent

Look at who is at the top. Time and cost are almost tied, but time is the one you cannot buy your way out of, because an appointment still needs someone to cover pickup, dinner and the 7pm meltdown.

The survey also found mothers spend four times more time focused on their family’s needs than on their own mental health, according to GreenShield’s own release. That ratio is not a character flaw. It is a calendar.

Does a Canadian survey say anything about moms everywhere?

It shows a pattern, not a worldwide rule, because the 1,001 mothers were all Canadian and answered an online poll in July 2026. Ipsos, a global market research company, weighted the sample to Census data, so it reflects Canadian mothers of children under 18 fairly well.

I live in the Netherlands, so I cannot tell you the Dutch number. What I can tell you is that the pattern rang true in my kitchen, and it matches what other reports keep finding. I covered one of them in a 2026 report saying the system is failing moms.

If a mom reading this recognises herself, take that seriously. If she lives somewhere with different healthcare, the cost number may change, but the time number probably follows her anywhere. And the quiet habit of saying “I’m fine” is global, as I wrote in why 93 percent of burned out moms still say they are fine. 🌙

What does it look like when you have no room left, even to ask?

It looks like a brain that cannot hold a snack, and that is the part nobody warns you about. About four years ago my youngest was around 18 months old, and every morning after school drop off we walked to the supermarket next to the school for that evening’s groceries.

In the Netherlands many supermarkets have a walk through bakery where you grab your own little breads, croissants and donuts. Every single morning we passed it. I grabbed my breakfast, I handed her a snack so she would stay quiet, and we were in and out in ten minutes.

Normally I made myself use the checkout with a cashier, so the snack in the stroller would at least get seen even if my brain forgot it. And my brain was NOT working. When it was very busy I used the self scan.

One morning, after I had paid, I was stopped and accused of stealing. I had forgotten to scan the snack my daughter was happily chewing on, for the third time. The cashier was completely done with me and started listing all the things she thought I had been taking, when in reality it was the occasional little bread.

I stood there with a stroller and a burning face, because I was so burned out that I could not remember handing my own child something ten minutes earlier. The shame was not about the bread. It was that burnout made me forget things I could not possibly forget, and then made me feel like a criminal for it.

I have not been back to that store in four years. My daughter waits until it is paid for now, every time, and I would rather that than ever go through it again. Now imagine that version of me being told to “just book an appointment.” 💛

Why do the moms who need support most have the least room to ask?

Because depletion shrinks the very skills that asking for help requires: planning, remembering, and believing you are allowed. The moms in that grocery store moment, and the ones in this survey, are not lazy about their wellbeing. They are out of capacity.

Emotional capacity means how much feeling, patience and attention you have left to give after a day of giving it away. I explained that in what emotional capacity means for moms, and it is the reason a mom at 20 percent battery cannot also run a search for a therapist, compare prices, and arrange childcare.

Here is the part I did not expect when I started writing this. When I finally asked for help in the past, it often turned into more work for me, which I unpacked in why asking for help lands back on your plate. Asking has a cost, and an empty tank cannot cover it.

How can the people around a mom make asking easier?

Remove one task from her day before you tell her to take care of herself. Advice like “you should talk to someone” lands as one more item when a mom has no gap, so the best help is the kind that makes a gap.

Take the school run, the dinner, or the bedtime off her plate for one evening, without a speech and without asking her to explain the schedule. Then say one sentence: “I booked Thursday evening, you do not have to plan anything.”

If you are the partner reading this, the conversation to have when she cannot carry it alone anymore is a gentle place to start. I will be honest, it works better when you do the work first and the talking second. 😅

Is it burnout, or is something else going on?

Burnout is a state of exhaustion from long term demands without enough recovery, and in this survey more than half of the mothers said they were in it. According to the Ipsos survey for GreenShield (2026), 65 percent feel overwhelmed often or very often, 55 percent report burnout, and 52 percent report regular anxiety.

I am not a doctor, and I cannot tell you which one you are dealing with. A GP or a licensed mental health professional can. What I can tell you is that feeling wiped out for months is a reason to ask someone qualified, not a reason to try harder.

If you want the mom side of the story, mom burnout: signs, causes and how to recover walks through what it tends to feel like. And if the word burnout does not quite cover it for you, depleted mother syndrome might.

What can you do when you have ten minutes and no energy?

Start by finding out where your battery actually is, because you cannot ask for the right kind of help when you do not know your own level. That is the whole reason I made The Battery Check, a free check in that helps you see where your battery is right now and what your own warning signs look like.

It is not a diagnosis and it is not another system. It is a mirror you can hold up in the time it takes the kettle to boil.

After that, make the ask smaller than you think it needs to be. One text to a friend saying “I am not okay, can we talk Thursday.” One call to your doctor’s office. One question to your partner: can you take bedtime twice this week so I can make one phone call?

If the thought of any of that makes you tired, that is data, not failure. It is also why I wrote about why you do not need another self care app, because a mom with no room does not need more tasks. She needs one small, doable step.

FAQ

You were never too busy to deserve help

The honest summary is that 71 percent of mothers in this survey waited, and time was the main reason, which says more about the day than about the mom. I would not wish the grocery store morning on anyone, but it taught me that when your brain stops working, the kind thing is to stop asking it to run the whole show.

If you want a first step that fits inside a busy day, take The Battery Check and see where you are today. Then make one small ask, to one person, this week.

You were never too busy to deserve help. The day was just too full to let you ask. 💛

Written by

Wendy Venema

A late-realized AuDHD mom in a blended family of seven. I write the posts I needed when I was crying on the bathroom floor.

Read my story