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As part of Infant Mental Health Week on Tuesday 7th June, I was honoured to be invited to a debate at the Houses of Lords on Perinatal Mental Health. The event had been created by Sanchita Islam and the debate was hosted by Baroness Helena Kennedy QC in the House of Lords. Sanchita has used art to keep mentally well and to deal with postpartum psychosis. Her personal story is written in Schizophrenics Can Be Good Mothers Too. 

Prior to the meeting I had arranged to meet my own MP Graham Evans (pictured). I met with some of his team locally a few weeks ago and he had written to ask if I could see him when I was next in London. We spent 45 minutes at Portcullis House where I shared my personal interest in perinatal mental health, details of 1001 Critical Days and why I feel that we need more services locally . He has said he will support me where he is able to. I am preparing a pack  of concise information to send to him  and hope to work together on this issue. I know I cannot encourage other people to lobby their own MP, if I am not doing so myself!

From there I then met with another sufferer of postnatal illness. Lindsay Robinson blogs as ‘Have you seen that girl?’ . She has a delightful son, Reuben. Her husband Gavin, is an MP in Belfast where they live. Lindsay has been very successfully raising awareness of her own illness and the lack of services in Northern Ireland for perinatal mental health. She is increasingly featured in the media – for example here. Lindsay was also going to the debate, so we arranged to meet up prior to it. As the wife of an MP, she had a pass that enabled us to go into one of the ‘members only’ dining areas! I was excited about everything!  Gavin also popped in to say hello.  We shared ideas and stories before we had a quick photo opportunity on the terrace of Westminster. What a lovely young lady she is!

I had also been going to meet another inspirational young mother who had postnatal depression – Naomi Farrow. She has set up a new charity, Get Me Out of The Four Walls, that enables new mothers to connect with others socially as isolation can have a detrimental effect on mental health. We only were able to say “hello” in the debate as her meeting with her MP, Norman Lamb, was later than planned. The MPs are getting to know about us!

Then it was into the debate in one of the rooms at Parliament. I had been invited by Raja Gangopadhyay, an obstetrician and gynaecologist, who has a special interest and passion around perinatal mental health. It was great to see many other people there that I have become to know over recent years. It almost felt like a family gathering! Here are some of them!

I was so pleased to be able to be a facilitator and introduce people to others where I felt a connection would be useful. I loved meeting a number of people whom I have connected with on Social Media and never met until this event e.g. Emma Sasaru and Leigh Kendall.;  In fact I am very grateful to them both as they managed to write an excellent account on this event before I have! Please take a look at it here and here.

Leigh so bravely shared her story of the loss of her baby and her subsequent mental health during the debate. She had us all captivated. I find it even more poignant because she had an emergency C-section due to developing HELLP syndrome. This was the same condition that my younger sister had. We are blessed that both she and my niece survived.

Leigh and Emma have expressed so well the things I was going to write. In addition, I would like to mention that I contributed to the debate by explaining how I feel more needs to be provided for preconception counselling for those at risk of poor perinatal mental health.

One of the other attendees was a familiar face. Did you watch the amazing  BBC documentary ‘My Baby, Psychosis and Me’? One of the ladies who bravely allowed cameras to film her during her illness in the programme was Jenny. It was brilliant to see her with her sparkle back!

Sanchita closed the session by reading a poem she had written about the tragic deaths of Charlotte Bevan and her new baby daughter in December 2014. Charlotte had walked out of the maternity unit at Bristol hospital with her newborn – neither survived the jump she made into the local gorge. I remember the night this happened as the media was extremely active in alerting her disappearance. I could not sleep as all I could visualise was her walking the streets! I wrote a blog as I could recall the night I had gone walking whilst mentally unwell and I completely empathised. Sanchita’s  poem totally summed up how important perinatal mental health is. I know I am not the only one who fought back the tears. The line that really struck me was Sanchita describing Charlotte’s slippers as ‘tombstones’.

We know how to help rebuild and save lives. We must do more to prevent similar tragedies. That is why I, and all of those present at this event, were there and shall continue to raise awareness and make services better.

If you haven’t already made your MP aware of this issue, please do so!

Elaine 🙂