Mothers' mental health being ignored, charity warns

Research from the National Childcare Trust has found that mental health problems among new mothers are going undetected because of a lack of GP support.

The parenting charity says that a sixth of mothers were given no time at all to talk about their health at the six-week postnatal checkup appointments, while a further 31 per cent had less than three minutes. Of equal concern, a quarter of the 1,025 women polled, who all gave birth in the last two years, were not asked anything about their emotional or mental well-being.

NHS guidelines encourage new mothers to tell their GP if they are feeling sad or anxious, with the conversations designed to identify postnatal depression, anxiety or other conditions related to the birth, which often go undetected.

The charity is campaigning for the NHS to introduce standalone appointments for mothers, at which they could discuss any physical or mental health problem they are experiencing, although this has been labelled as unrealistic.

Sarah McMullen, NCT’s head of knowledge, said: “Many new mums don’t find it easy to admit they are struggling, so it is impossible to make them feel comfortable enough to discuss their concerns in less than three minutes.”