SUICIDE IS one of the main causes of death in new mothers, Tayside health bosses heard yesterday, writes Marjory Inglis, health reporter.

There were 50 suicides in the UK from 2000 to 2002 when women took their own lives either during pregnancy or within a year of giving birth.

Behind the bald statistics lies a personal tragedy for the families of each mother, and few can be greater than the 31-year-old Perth mother who plunged from the top of Kinnoull Hill in January 2002, taking her two-year-old daughter and six-week-old son with her.

The Perth tragedy was not referred to at yesterday’s meeting of NHS Tayside’s quality and clinical governance committee in Kings Cross, Dundee, but her death was included in the anonymous figures before the committee members.

They considered the implications locally of the national report Why Mothers Die 2000—2002: The Sixth Report of the Confidential Enquiries into Maternal Deaths in the UK.

They were told Tayside complies with the majority of recommendations in the report, but a “major” challenge was developing and sustaining mental health services for pregnant women and those who had recently given birth.

Pall Agustsson, consultant in obstetrics and gynaecology based at Ninewells Hospital, Dundee, said in the 20 years since the reports into maternal deaths in the UK began, the number of deaths resulting directly from pregnancy complications had fallen.

However, the number of deaths not due to direct obstetric causes had risen, with suicide, either during pregnancy or within the following 12 months, being the main cause of death.

National studies suggest around 13% of post-natal women would develop post-natal depression.

With an annual birth rate in Tayside around 4000 that would mean around 520 women a year developing post-natal depression in the region.

Dr Agustsson said at least 50% of women would have “baby blue days” but the 13% figure was the more serious cases.

“These are women who have the most severe post natal depression and require treatment,” he said.

The national report recommended making available to every woman a specialist mental health team, which does not exist in Tayside.

The national report also recommends women who require psychiatric admission following child-birth should be admitted to a specialist mother and baby unit, together with their infant.

Tayside does not have such a unit.

NHS Tayside chief executive Professor Tony Wells said, however, that level of care was provided elsewhere and there are plans to develop a specialist unit, likely to be a national centre.

He said the number of mothers developing such serious mental illness is relatively small, but investment is taking place and women are referred to a specialist unit in Glasgow.