Mothers suffering postnatal depression afraid to tell their GP

WOMEN with postnatal depression are being left without help because they are scared of being thought an unfit mother, a report suggests.

The study by the National Childbirth Trust suggests half of new mothers suffer mental health problems during pregnancy or within the first year of their child’s birth.

But 42 per cent of those reporting such experiences said their problems were never detected by a health professional.

In one fifth of cases, GPS did not even ask about their emotional wellbeing, the NCT report said.

Just as commonly, new mothers felt unable to disclose their anxiety.

In total, 46 per cent of those who felt unable to speak up worried that health professionals would think they were incapable of looking after their baby. And almost as many said doctors did not seem interested, while one quarter said there was no time.

Every new mother is supposed to be offered a postnatal check-up by their GP, six weeks after the birth of their child.

But the poll of more than 1,000 new mothers found that one in three said their check-up took three minutes or less. Often the slot was mainly spent checking on the health of the baby, leaving little or no time to discuss how the mother was feeling.

The charity is calling for an overhaul so that new mothers get a GP appointment dedicated to their own health.

Sarah Mcmullen, head of knowledge at NCT, said: “It is shocking that so many new mothers aren’t getting the help they need, which can have a devastating impact on the women and their families.

“Some mothers aren’t being open about how they’re feeling as they’re terrified they’re going to have their baby taken away and others are not being asked about their emotional wellbeing at all.”

Prof Helen Stokes-lampard, chairman of the Royal College of GPS, said the checks were an important opportunity to discuss a new mother’s health and wellbeing. But she said: “It’s incredibly hard for GPS to explore all the physical and psychological factors affecting our patients’ health within the time constraints of the consultation as it stands.”

She said the checks ought to be longer but this would require more resources and more GPS.

It came as research found that one eighth of NHS trusts have higher rates than expected of stillbirths and neonatal deaths.

Research led by the University of Leicester discovered a small drop in national rates of stillbirths, while neonatal death rates were barely changed.

The audit of 165 NHS trusts and health boards across Britain, labelled 21 as “red” – meaning a mortality rate at least 10 per cent more than expected.

Twelve organisations were rated green – with death rates more than 10 per cent lower, with the rest in the amber and yellow categories in between.

Overall, researchers found that the rate of stillbirths in the UK fell by 8 per cent between 2013 to 2015. In 2015, the stillbirth rate was 3.87 per 1,000 total births, a fall from 4.20 per 1,000 total births in 2013.

But the authors said that UK stillbirth rates remain high compared with similar European countries and there is “significant variation” across Britain.