Professor Veronica O'Keane:

In response to Deputy Timmins's question about children, it is true for children that overall, both in the UK and the US, a pregnant teenager is more likely to commit suicide than a non-pregnant teenager. A pregnant adult is less likely to commit suicide than a non-pregnant adult. If there are specific questions, we have an expert here on child and adolescent psychiatry who has not given any evidence. Perhaps she wants to give some evidence at this point. My point simply was that adolescents are at a hugely increased risk of committing suicide if they are pregnant.
There seems to be some confusion about the issue concerning suicide being a leading cause of death in pregnancy. It is a leading cause of death in pregnancy and it is also rare. The reason it is rare is simply because all deaths in pregnancy are rare. That is the sum of it.
Suicide post partum is the leading cause of death overall. They are the statistics in relation to that.