New mothers should receive a mental health checkup six weeks after giving birth to help tackle possible postnatal depression and other problems related to having a baby, ministers have been told.
A cross-party group of 60 MPs and peers have written to Steve Brine, the minister for public health and primary care, demanding that all mothers in England have an assessment of their emotional and mental health carried out by a GP, practice nurse or health visitor.
They say that making such checkups mandatory would reduce the damage experienced by women, children and families caused by mothers suffering psychological problems associated with pregnancy and birth, which often go undetected.
About half of mothers in the UK develop a mental health problem of some sort during that time, such as postnatal depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and postpartum psychosis, according to the parenting charity NCT.
The MPs and peers are lobbying for checks to become automatic as members of the all-party parliamentary group for prevention of adverse childhood experiences. It is jointly chaired by the Labour MP Dr Paul Williams, who is a GP, and Dr Alex Burghart, a Conservative MP who is a former teacher and former adviser to Theresa May in Downing Street.
In their letter they tell Brine that there is “significant harm caused to mothers and children by low rates of diagnosis of maternal mental health problems. These unseen and untreated mental health conditions create great suffering for mothers. But, crucially, they also erode parents’ ability to create healthy bonding with and support for their children.”
Babies and mothers are both meant to have their health assessed by a GP at the six-week postnatal check. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) recommends that both should happen. However, research last year by NCT found 42% of mothers said that their perinatal mental health problems were not picked up at those appointments.
Many mothers miss out because while checking the baby’s health is a stipulation under the GP contract, doing the same for the woman is not, according to the MPs and peers.
“As a result, mothers report that while baby checks are routinely carried out, the maternal check, including a discussion about the mother’s emotional and mental wellbeing, is often either not done at all or is done in a hurry at the end of the baby-check appointment,” the letter says.
They are urging Brine to ensure that all mothers start to receive a checkup of their own health, at a separate appointment to their baby’s, also six weeks after the birth. Such checkups should include “open questioning about her mental health”. The scheme would cost about £20m a year to operate but would more than pay for itself because perinatal mental health problems cost an estimated £8bn, they say.
“It’s profoundly unfair that some women get excellent care while others aren’t even asked about how they are feeling by health workers. I hope to persuade the government to commit to come fully around to our view that a universal six-week perinatal mental health check for all women needs to be written into all GPs’ contracts,” said Williams.
The NCT backed the move. “It’s crucial that new mums’ mental health problems are picked up early and the six-week postnatal checkup is the ideal opportunity to do so. At the moment many mothers are suffering in silence and this can have a huge emotional impact on women, as well as devastating consequences for families,” said Abi Wood, the charity’s head of campaigns.
Jackie Doyle-Price, the mental health minister, last week hinted in parliament that ministers were considering obliging GPs to conducts six-week checks on mothers’ mental health.
Replying to a question by the Labour MP Jenny Chapman, she said: “Nice recommends postnatal checks for mothers and NHS England expects commissioners to undertake that those guidelines are being met. As for any further support by GPs, she will be aware that there is a renegotiation of the GP contract [starting in July] and it will be covered there.”
