Ms Geraldine Cahill:

I have come across only a handful of cases in all my years in practice. It usually manifests itself within a few days of birth whereby somebody will exhibit extreme, manic behaviour, with a great deal of fear. A couple of women I have worked with stated they were afraid that they themselves would drop or kill their babies. They just did not feel in any way in control of any of their emotions, and usually went into a corner somewhere in their house and hid from their baby. The first signs might be that a mum does not want to pick up her baby at all, and when that is explored with her, it is because of fear.

As people leave the hospital now after two or three days, it is not picked up. When I was having my babies, mothers were in hospital for nearly a week and it was usually picked up within those five to seven days, whereas now people leave within two or three days and it is much more difficult to pick it up. The partners, therefore, see this very strange behaviour and have to bring in a GP or whatever. It is not picked up in the acute services, which is where it should be picked up.