{"id":629448,"date":"2026-09-19T10:04:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T10:04:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/629448\/"},"modified":"2026-09-19T10:04:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T10:04:13","slug":"pregnant-women-and-new-mothers-with-mental-health-difficulties-are-falling-through-the-cracks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/629448\/","title":{"rendered":"Pregnant women and new mothers with mental health difficulties are ‘falling through the cracks’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pregnant women and new mothers with mental health<\/a> difficulties are falling through the cracks of Ireland’s healthcare system, advocates have warned.<\/p>\n

It comes as new figures showed suicide was the leading cause of late maternal deaths between 2022 and 2024.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, the Maternal Death Enquiry (MDE) reported that suicide was the leading cause of deaths among women in the year after giving birth during the period.<\/p>\n

On Friday, mental health minister Mary Butler said two key meetings are due to take place this month around plans for a specialist inpatient mother and baby psychiatric unit.<\/p>\n

The proposed facility would allow women to remain with their babies while receiving care.<\/p>\n

Krysia Lynch, an advocate with The Association for Improvements in Maternity Services (Aims) Eire said: \u201cMaternal death data are always very difficult to reflect on.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The psychiatric and psychological effects of pregnancy and postpartum continue to colour this round of data, and we still see the prevalence of suicide as a major factor,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis means there is more impetus than ever to look after women’s mental health, not just after pregnancy but during it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ds Lynch called for progress to be made through an ongoing review of perinatal mental health care, explaining that this \u201cfeels all the more important” now.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dr Lynch said she has heard of new mothers only receiving one visit from a public health nurse. \u201cIsolation and poor experience leave women traumatised and with little or no support in the postnatal. Women fall through the cracks,\u201d she warned.<\/p>\n

“Who wants to know more about their experiences, where they might feel vulnerable and what supports they might benefit from?\u00a0 We all know the answer; it’s no one.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Perinatal care plans<\/p>\n

The HSE intends to build a perinatal mother and baby unit on the grounds of St Vincent\u2019s University Hospital,\u00a0though the exact location has not yet been agreed. Such a unit was first recommended in 2017.<\/p>\n

Ms Butler said: \u201cI\u2019m determined to progress the development of a perinatal mother and baby init so that women can have their babies stay with them if they require inpatient psychiatric care.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

She will meet with the HSE national director for strategic health infrastructure and capital delivery to discuss the matter next week. A separate meeting of key stakeholders takes place at the end of September.<\/p>\n

Funding is part of a \u20ac470m package for mental health capital projects over the next five years, said the minister.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am also working with the regional executive officer for the Midwest to progress a smaller [perinatal mother and baby unit] in Limerick so that we can make these supports available on both the East and West coasts,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The HSE said: \u201cEach maternal death is a tragic outcome and represents the loss of a woman, with a significant impact on her family and those involved in her care.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

A spokeswoman said all direct maternal deaths are externally reviewed. Families receive bereavement support and notifications are sent to the HSE\u2019s National Women and Infants Health Programme.<\/p>\n

MDE findings are used to drive improvement across maternity and mental health services.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pregnant women and new mothers with mental health difficulties are falling through the cracks of Ireland’s healthcare system,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":629449,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[2121,103,4892,61,60,410],"class_list":["post-629448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-womens-health","tag-health","tag-health-news","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-mental-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=629448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/629449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=629448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}