Isabel Grant, Leeds Socialist Party
One in five women develop a mental illness during pregnancy or within the first year after having a baby. And maternal death due to mental health problems is increasing. Suicide remains the leading cause of death in the first year after birth.
Yet, in England, only 16% of specialist perinatal mental health community teams meet the minimum standard of care set by the Royal College of Psychiatrists. None of the boards in Northern Ireland or Wales meet the standard.
This isn’t just about a lack of provision of mental health services, but maternity services in general.
Basic needs
There are numerous reports of women not receiving any food in hospital after childbirth, having to wait up to 12 hours until they can eat. This is just one example of women’s basic needs being forgotten.
Regular home visits from a midwife or another professional who could potentially pick up on symptoms early have suffered from austerity cuts. After the first few weeks, these visits are non-existent.
Other support services are now few and far between. Although some community groups, usually led by parents, are reopening, this is a fraction of what there was previously.
And this is not just due to the Covid pandemic. 13 years of Tory austerity to support services for new parents have damaged health and wellbeing. We can now see the devastating impact of those cuts.
Staff shortage
There’s a shortage of over 2,000 midwives. We need to fight for a fully resourced NHS, democratically run by staff, patients and the local community.
And we need proper funding to community services, including ‘stay and play’, parent support groups (not just for breastfeeding), children’s centres and libraries.
Labour councils need to fight against cuts to budgets by Tory central government and for increased funding. If they won’t, they should stand aside for those for will.
