Motion no: 47
Congress notes that:Perinatal mental health problems are very common, affecting up to 20% of women at some point during pregnancy or in the rst year of motherhood. This is not only a major public health issue but also an issue with hidden economic costs as it is estimated that taken together perinatal depression, anxiety and psychosis carry a long term cost to society of about £8.1 billion for each one year cohort of births in the UK according to a report published by the London School of Economics and Centre for Mental Health. Nearly three-quarters of this cost relates to adverse impacts on the child rather than the mother. Congress also notes that: Despite the recognition in the National Maternity Strategy for the South of Ireland that experinatal mental health was a recurring theme of the public consultation, the ndings of which point to the need for better and more accessible mental health support pre, during and post pregnancy, and a recent report by the RQIA in Northern Ireland which recommends that specialist perinatal mental health services should be developed in each HSC Trust and that a single regional Mother and Baby Unit be established in Northern Ireland , only one out of the ve HSC Trusts in Northern Ireland provides a very limited outpatient specialist perinatal mental health service and there is no specialist in-patient service available anywhere on the island of Ireland where women and their babies can be admitted for specialist treatment. This means that women who are unable to be provided with appropriate care and treatment take longer to be diagnosed and to recover, all women who require specialist in-patient hospital treatment are separated from their babies and the emotional and nancial cost to women, their families and wider society is incalculabl Congress resolves: To use all means available to ensure that appropriate specialist perinatal mental health services, both in-patient and out-patient, are provided to women in both the North and South of Ireland. To support those campaigning to have adequate numbers of specialist health care staff trained and employed to meet the needs of women with perinatal mental ill health.
