Suicide trebled among new mothers during pandemic

SUICIDES of new mothers trebled during the first year of the pandemic after the NHS reduced the number of face-to-face appointments, according to the latest figures.

A report found that women were three times more likely to die by suicide during, or up to six weeks after the end of pregnancy compared with figures for 2017-19, equating to 1.5 women per 100,000 pregnancies.

The report found that 28 women in 2020 died by suicide during pregnancy or up to one year after the end of pregnancy, noting that during the first year of the pandemic, “very rapid changes” were made to health services across the UK and Ireland, with mental health services “not immune” to this.

The most common change the report found was fewer face-to-face appointments and the rapid adoption of online or telephone assessments.

It notes there were “rapid” communication changes in response to concerns over face-to-face contact in 2020 and that “these changes were also reflected in the care of the women who died”.

“Whilst some services did manage to maintain face-to-face contact, many were using telephone or video forms of communication,” the report said.

The rate of suicide was triple that of mothers during 2017-19 and out of step with the general female population.

The report by MBRRACE-UK finds that there were also higher rates of reported domestic abuse for mothers who died by suicide in 2020 compared with rates for 2017-19. Very few of the women who died by suicide had a formal mental health diagnosis.

The report also found that deaths of mothers overall rose by 24 per cent in 2018-20 compared to the previous three years, an overall increase of 19 per cent, excluding Covid.

Gill Walton, the chief executive of the Royal College of Midwives, said: “Any rise in maternal deaths, however small, is deeply worrying and we are moving backward not forward.”