TThe facts which give sober for you: 1) suicide is the main cause of maternal death in the period of six weeks to a year after birth, and 2) there are only 22 units of mother and baby in The entire United Kingdom, without one one in Northern Ireland.
Perinatal mental illness – a main complication of pregnancy – is again in the news. The services collapse and are upgraded, and a postal code lottery This means that women often have trouble accessing treatment, with devastating consequences. The deputy for the new work Laura Kyrke-Smith was Speak with emotion About death by the suicide of her friend Sophie, who ended her life 10 weeks after the birth of her third child. Sophie suffered from anxiety, especially around her baby’s diet, and they had spent one night in A & e, but it is not clear if the signs they were at risk were picked up by professionals. Her friend was asked me If, in the midst of all the concern for the baby, whoever asked her mother if she was fine and what a difference that could have made not only for Sophie, but also for the three young girls she left.
During pregnancy, you are watched for all kinds of physical complications. In fact, the average woman during pregnancy has 16 contacts with health professionals. They measure you and score you and take your blood and urine samples and watch you for pre-eclampsia and gestational diabetes. They should also ask you questions about your mood, but it doesn’t always happen, or not often enough. After having your baby, your health visitor and your general practitioner should verify the health of the baby and ask questions about the well-being of the mother, but he can sometimes look like a baccalaureate exercise, and the attention granted To this, and the help available, can vary wildly from the place to place.
The mental mind Health Alliance and the Royal College of Midwives say that there are striking variations in the levels of care and the duration it takes to access what could be wild support. They and Kyrke-Smith want to prevent women at risk of slipping into the meshes of the net by making mental health support fully integrated into routine maternity care. There have been major improvements in recent years – including the creation of designated mental health positions – but there is a desperate need for more funding and staff.
I am a mother with some first -hand experience of the perinatal mental health system. I shook in temporary ruined buildings. I sat on the phone in tears. And I felt the shame that sometimes hinders women for having asked for help during what everyone tells you should be a completely joyful period of your life. It took three references – two of a hospital consultant, and one of a particularly tenacious health visitor – to obtain specialized help.
There is, of course, a high threshold for the reference (but let’s be honest, it is probably too high). The services are so stretched that it can be difficult to think that you deserve care. “There must be so many worse women than me,” do you think, even if you are told that you should absolutely receive help. At a time of acute need and under -funding problems of several decades, the concept of preventive maternal mental health care seems to be a luxury, even if – as in my case – obtain support during pregnancy can help prevent the things to reach the point of crisis once the baby arrives.
I consider myself one of the lucky ones. I received exceptional care, especially from the mental health nurse, who made home visits and was in contact by phone. But unfortunately, it is help that I would not necessarily have acquired in another arrondissement or region. So many mothers that I met were asked alone or said, many years after the fact: “I think I had postnatal depression”, or “the thoughts I had were not normal”. Helping women and their loved ones to recognize when they need this additional support – and they deserve it – should be a crucial part of the pregnancy course. Ask how they are, listen to them, notice any alarm signal and the signaling of relevant services is now standard in certain trusts, but it should be everywhere.
There are places where charitable organizations are trying to fill the gaps, but many women need a higher level of care than the free advice provided by volunteers. A friend who moved from London to Somerset to this. She received brilliant care during her first twin pregnancy in Islington, but during her second pregnancy, she had to opt for costly private therapy. This despite writing a document summarizing its history of postnatal depression (PND) and post-traumatic stress disorder (SSPT) and to ask health professionals to read it.
What does that tell us? In a depressing way, this suggests that even the most vocal self-evoked can have trouble accessing support, so what hope is there for those who feel that they do not deserve it, who are vulnerable or who Haven’t spotted the signs they need help?
There are many horrible details in the history of Sophie’s case, the messages she sent in these desperate first weeks, to the rich life she left. What made my own sink to heart is to read your difficulties in food. Kyrke-Smith said how she does not know “if the conversations they had about the baby’s diet were carried out in a way that was considerate of the mental health struggles that my friend may have had” . Since I wrote on my own challenges with breastfeeding, several mental health professionals have told me in private that they believe that the way the NHS offers a breastfeeding policy adapted to babies of the UNICEF can be incompatible with the safeguarding the mental health of women. A 2022 study in the wild also raised concerns This exclusive policy of promoting breastfeeding can worsen unfavorable maternal mental health. A truly friendly policy values the mental health of this baby’s mother.
I am so happy that the conversation on maternal mental health occurs, and measures such as the introduction of midwives specializing in mental health are a step in the right direction, but more funding, more staff, more ‘Education, more follow -up, more data and more awareness is urgent. One in five women suffer from a mental illness in the perinatal time. When do mothers stop being left to shout it?
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