NHS must ‘urgently’ publish data on mental health checks for pregnant women, say top doctors

The NHS must start sharing figures on mental health checks for pregnant women and new mothers amid gaps in hospital data, top doctors warn.

One in six NHS trusts is not able to say whether they screen pregnant women for mental health issues at all, despite national guidelines recommending these checks be done at 10 weeks. Suicide has been recorded has one of the leading drivers in post-natal deaths.

The findings come as the latest NHS figures show 51,000 women accessed specialist perinatal mental health services in the 12 months prior this fell short of a target for the NHS to see 66,000 mothers in 2022-23. Access levels have. however, improved from 31,000 a year in March 2022.

The Royal College of Psychiatrists has called for NHS England to “urgently” publish data on every hospital in the country showing whether they are carrying out this vital screening.

Last November the latest national report into maternal deaths, from researchers led by Oxford University, found suicide was again the leading cause of direct deaths in women a year after the end of their pregnancy.

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Source: The Independent, 4 May 2023