Hansard

I commend Clare Haughey for bringing the motion—and, indeed, her knowledge and expertise in this area—to the chamber today. I also welcome the change agents, Dr Roch Cantwell and others to the public gallery. We all aspire to perinatal mental health getting the attention and sustained discussion that it deserves, and I thank all members who have spoken in the debate for their contributions and for sharing their experiences.

Over the past while—whether it has been through press coverage, passionate campaigning, parliamentary activity or elsewhere—we have heard about the priority and fundamental importance of perinatal mental health. On Monday, I spoke on the issue at Maternal Mental Health Scotland’s annual conference. We have momentum, which we must keep going, and the everyone’s business campaign has played a significant part in ensuring that that happens. That is in the wider context of this week being mental health awareness week and, of course, 2018 being the year of young people. Together, all of that work and all those opportunities can make a real and tangible difference to the profile of issues such as perinatal mental health. Ultimately, we want to raise that profile so that there is better support for women and a more sophisticated understanding of the issues at population level across Scotland.

Annie Wells spoke about what support is available in her area, at the Quarriers centre. Others spoke about the Aberlour project, and there is the Juno project here in Edinburgh. Annie Wells, Ruth Maguire and others spoke about the importance of partnership working. The model should not always be a medicalised one; with partnership working, we can offer support to each other in the community.

As well as focusing on the importance of good perinatal mental health in general, Clare Haughey’s motion supports the everyone’s business campaign, which calls for all women who experience perinatal mental health problems to receive the care that they and their families need, wherever and whenever they need it. The evidence for that is persuasive. We know that between 10 and 15 per cent of women who give birth will suffer from anxiety or depression during pregnancy and the first year after it. That equates to between 5,500 and 8,000 women each year. Furthermore, we know that, in two of every five households with a new baby, at least one parent will suffer from depression or anxiety. The Royal College of General Practitioners has said:

“Up to one in five women ... are affected by mental health problems”

in the perinatal period.

“Unfortunately, only 50% of these are diagnosed. Without appropriate treatment, the negative impact of mental health problems during the perinatal period is enormous and can have long-lasting consequences on not only women, but their partners and children too.”

As others have said, mental ill health is the second leading cause of maternal death after cardiovascular disease. Treating maternal mental health problems is good not only for the women who are affected but for their babies—that is the intergenerational aspect that Ruth Maguire mentioned—and it contributes to breaking the cycle of poor outcomes from early mental health adversity.

All of that is why we have prioritised perinatal mental health in our 10-year mental health strategy. Two of the strategy’s key themes are prevention and early intervention; others are about improving access to treatment and having joined-up, accessible services. We have provided funding of £173,000 a year for the perinatal mental health managed clinical network, and we have funded the network at nearly double the usual level for MCNs, allowing it to bring together not just specialists on perinatal mental health but specialists on nursing, maternity and infant mental health.

The network has the following long-term ambition, which, I have no doubt, we all support:

“That all women, their infants, and families, have equity of access to the perinatal mental health services they need across all of Scotland.”

We want a focus on prevention and early intervention that spans the whole range of the early years, starting from preconception and continuing through infancy and into the school years. Our aspirations apply equally across the piece, and I will make sure that the MCN takes into account miscarriage and fertility problems—which two members mentioned—if it is not already doing so.