Hansard

I, too, thank Clare Haughey for bringing this important subject to the chamber and for an informative and moving opening speech. I also thank her because this issue is rarely discussed. It should be, as it affects a lot of women—one in 10, as we have heard.

Pregnancy is traditionally portrayed as a happy, joyful time in a woman’s life. People say things such as, “You look radiant”, “You’re blooming,” and all the rest of it. For many women that is true: they revel in this amazing chapter of their life, feeling fulfilled, happy and well—if a little exhausted towards the end. However, for others, as we have heard, it is just not like that that.

As the motion states,

“more than 1 in 10 women develop a mental illness during pregnancy or within the first year after having a child”,

which is exactly when they need their health and energy most. Because of societal pressure, they often pretend that everything is alright, as they do not want to seem weird or different, as Alex Cole-Hamilton articulated. The everyone’s business campaign is so important because it raises awareness of the issues. It says that it is okay to not be okay and that sufferers are not alone.

The fact that the illness often goes undiagnosed and untreated has a devastating effect on women and their family and friends. There is patchy provision of specialist care throughout the United Kingdom and, like Clare Haughey and others, I am glad that that is recognised in the Scottish Government’s mental health strategy, which will fund a £173,000 managed clinical network on perinatal mental health. The network will train midwives, health visitors and primary care and mental health professionals so that women know that there will be help when they most need it, no matter where in Scotland they live. There should not be a postcode lottery in an issue as important as this—it is everyone’s business.

The Scottish intercollegiate guidelines network’s SIGN 127 campaign—SIGN 127 is a guideline on managing perinatal mood disorders—presents a vision of what a world-class service for perinatal mental health would look like. The Scottish Government has committed to implement the SIGN 127 guideline and has also prioritised perinatal mental health in its plan “The Best Start: A Five-Year Forward Plan for Maternity and Neonatal Care in Scotland”.

The gaps in specialist perinatal mental health services in Scotland must be closed, and I believe that the Government has taken the first steps to address that. An example of great practice is that of the Aberlour children’s charity, which believes in early intervention. Aberlour points out in its briefing, for which I thank it, that not all children are born equal. Since 2014, Aberlour has been providing perinatal support services across Forth Valley, and it will expand its provision this year to support mums and their families in East Lothian. Aberlour also runs a befriending support service to provide intensive, community-based, one-to-one support throughout pregnancy and during the first year of a child’s life. By matching each mum with a befriender, the service aims to improve mental health and wellbeing, increase confidence in parenting, reduce social isolation and support access to wider community supports and resources. Aberlour also believes that acknowledging the importance of the father, partner or any other existing supportive relationships in the lives of expectant or new mums is essential, which fits entirely with Fulton MacGregor’s campaign on parental leave.

Nothing is more important than our health and the health of our next generation. It is incumbent on each and every one of us to recognise the signs of perinatal and postnatal illness and to offer support to those who are suffering. We do not live in the dark ages, so let us not be kept in the dark about this most serious of issues.