Ms Geraldine Cahill:

I am not 100% sure but I think the St. Patrick's unit in Dublin is the only place where somebody with very severe puerperal psychosis can be hospitalised. There is a difference between puerperal psychosis where somebody needs to be hospitalised and postnatal depression. A woman cannot have her baby with her when she is in St. Patrick's unit. It is just not possible so there is always separation in the case of puerperal psychosis sometimes for the safety of the baby but usually because of staffing. There are issues around that. There should be a mother and baby unit but there is none.

In most cases of postnatal depression, and there is a lack of services for those with very severe postnatal depression, medication is the first route that people will go down and that will usually be accompanied by the statement "and you will need to give up breastfeeding". In fact, the research shows that giving up breastfeeding will make their depression worse and that if they continue to breastfeed, their depression will eventually begin to drop. They may still need medication, however, and many medications for depression are okay to use while breastfeeding. Puerperal psychosis is a very different condition and needs to be medically supervised because it is very severe. As far as I know, the mums and babies are separated and we do not have a mother and baby unit in this country.