One of the biggest obstacles to women coming forward for treatment for postnatal depression is a fear of having their children taken into care, according to an expert in psychiatric problems arising from childbirth.
Dr Siobhan Barry, clinical director of Cluain Mhuire Family Centre in Blackrock, Dublin, said 12-30 per cent of mothers experience postnatal depression but "many are slow to come forward".
"There can be a sense of failure and shame despite the fact that depression is so common. And one of the greatest fears mothers have is that the child might be taken away from them."
However, Dr Barry, former psychiatrist at the Coombe Hospital, said that from her experience in community care "health boards, for a variety of reasons, will be loath to accept kids into foster care, and will instead try to do everything to support the situation if it has a possibility of holding. From time to time, foster care is the only option but it is seen as very much temporary."
Stressing the importance of treating postnatal depression at an early stage, Dr Barry said the condition ranged from the heightened emotional state of "baby blues", which affected up to 75 per cent of mothers, to the severe mood change of puerperal psychosis, which affected one in 1,000.
Puerperal psychosis, which can involve delusions, hallucinations and behaviour that is potentially risky to mother and child, normally develops within two weeks of delivery. One in five sufferers will subsequently develop manic-depressive illness.
Dr Barry noted many cases of puerperal psychosis were not picked up initially because women left hospital so early after their birth. Although plans were afoot for a mother and baby unit at the redeveloped St Vincent's Hospital, Dublin, she said it was a "real tragedy" no such facility existed at present to help women get through a depression that required hospitalisation without them being separated from their children.
"It doesn't help if the child goes into foster care while the mother is recovering because the mother is then starting, months down the line, to try to form an attachment with the baby."
q Women suffering depression after childbirth can seek help from their public health nurse, doctor or midwife. The voluntary group Parentline also offers help and support for women and their families suffering from postnatal depression. Parentline can be contacted at: 1890 927 277.
