Townsville beds down perinatal health help
For years, if a new mum started experiencing distress or mental health issues after giving birth, her only options were to stick it out or go to Brisbane.
Now an injection of $39m in state government funding means a record 30 perinatal mental health beds will be installed up and down the coast.
This includes eight beds for Townsville, at Mater Private Hospital and co-used by Townsville University Hospital – the first time perinatal mental health beds have been installed north of Brisbane.
Health Minister Shannon Fentiman announced the beds on Friday outside Townsville Mater, and said they would provide much-needed “special-ist wraparound support for mum and bub”.
“Of the 60,000 babies born every year across Queensland, we know one in five mums will experience some form of psychological distress or mental ill health,” she said.
“It is so important they get the specialist help they need with their baby.”
New beds will also be installed in Cairns, Ipswich, Logan, the Sunshine Coast and South Brisbane to comp
lement the existing 12 beds in Brisbane and the Gold Coast.
Townsville mother Stephanie Barwick gave birth to her second child, Ted, just 10 weeks ago.
“As a new mum I couldn’t think of anything worse than going down to Brisbane for specialist care,” she said.
Townsville University Hospital psychiatry registrar Kiran Sharma said the govern
ment funding of Townsville’s eight beds meant mothers would not need private health insurance to access them.
“We know perinatal women have a 22 per cent increased risk in developing mental health issues,” she said.
“This can be because of biological factors like changing hormones but there are also factors we don’t fully understand.”
They included underlying mental health issues flaring post-natal, depression, sleep deprivation and social isolation.
Perinatal is the period of time from pregnancy to two years after birth.
“A lot of people believe having a kid connects you with people, but it is actually the opposite,” Dr Sharma said.
“And Townsville has a very transient population due to
the workforces. There are a lot of young parents here who don’t have their extended family around.”
It is expected the new beds will be installed within a few weeks and are fully-funded up to late 2026.
Local Labor MPS Aaron Harper, Les Walker and Scott Stewart backed the decision to sink $39m into the beds.
Mr Harper, the Member for Thuringowa, said both his children were born in Townsville Mater and stressed how well private-public partnerships could work when the sectors team up: “Private partnership with Mater is needed in terms of the demands on our public health system.”
The perinatal mental health beds allow mothers to be admitted to hospital for treatment while also keeping their newborns with them.