Update: Northern Ireland Mother and Baby Unit Campaign

Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK without a Mother and Baby Unit (MBU), a specialist inpatient mental health treatment centre where mothers can be admitted with their babies for care and treatment. Instead, mothers who develop postpartum psychosis (PP) are admitted to general acute psychiatric wards for non-specialist treatment, separating them from babies.

APP has been campaigning for more Mother and Baby Units in the UK for more than 10 years. Our research shows that women who receive care for postpartum psychosis in MBUs feel more satisfied with the care they receive, feel safer, feel more confident in the knowledge of the staff, recover more quickly and feel more confident with their baby when they go home.

This update is from APP’s Northern Ireland campaigner, Liz Morrison…

Thank you so much to everyone who’s helped raise awareness of the urgent need for an MBU in Northern Ireland (NI). We made a big stride forward when the issue was debated in the Northern Ireland Assembly in October.

The debate saw strong cross-party support and powerful testimony from both MLAs and the Health Minister, Mike Nesbitt, who said:

A Mother and Baby Unit is not overdue or long overdue: it is long, long overdue.

Talking about his own family’s experience of severe postnatal mental illness, the Minister said he wants to go ahead with an MBU in Belfast but didn’t go as far as guaranteeing funding.

MLAs from all parties urged the Minister to find the funds for an MBU. Most urged that in the meantime a temporary ward is opened, and that women be given the option to travel to England, Scotland or Wales for treatment with their babies if that’s what they want. APP had briefed the MLAs to ask for this. We’re really pleased that they set out our asks clearly and even praised APP for our ‘tireless campaigning.’

That campaigning is thanks in huge part to the members of APP’s Northern Ireland peer support group who have spoken out in the media and met with politicians. The debate in the Assembly came about as a direct result of our peer support volunteer,  Teresa,  joining other APP reps to meet with Sinn Féin MLAs. Órlaithí Flynn MLA was moved by her story and worked to bring the debate forward. We can’t say a big enough thank you to everyone who has shared their story with journalists, health officials and politicians.

We’re not quite there yet - we’re still waiting for the business case from the Belfast Trust (which has been chosen as the site of a new MBU). APP has been arguing strongly that we can’t wait another five years for an MBU - we want a safe temporary MBU, as well as the option for women to travel with their baby to Scotland, England or Wales for treatment if that’s what they want. We know that’s not appropriate for most families, but some have told us they would like that option. Orlaithi and other MLAs called on the Minister to make this happen.

During the debate, the Health Minister said that an interim ward isn’t possible, but afterwards APP wrote to him to argue that it is needed, and he has since asked the Department of Health to look at this again.

You can read the text of the full debate here (page 15 onwards) and watch it here (it starts at 11.30).

Meanwhile, APP has been working with an international journalist who visited Belfast in September to talk to women who have been admitted to general psychiatric wards while experiencing PP about their experiences as part of a Europe-wide investigation into the need for MBUs. Reports have been placed in a number of media outlets, including the Northern Ireland publication The Detail.  Thanks to Stephanie and other mums who shared their experiences.

If you or anyone you know has been affected by postpartum psychosis, now or many years ago, and would like support or to join our Lived Experience community, including our NI group, email ellie@app-network.org for more information.