Perinatal Mental Health Services

That the Parliament acknowledges that around one in five new mothers experience a form of perinatal mental ill health, including depression, anxiety and psychotic disorders; considers that, in spite of the Scottish Government pledging £50 million of investment into perinatal mental health care, there remains only two mother and baby units, at St John’s Hospital in Livingston and the West of Scotland Mother & Baby Unit in Glasgow; believes that having only two such units leaves new mothers having to travel hundreds of miles to access essential mental health care and treatment, and supports calls from the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Scotland for what it sees as this “postcode lottery” facing new mothers to be tackled by extending the provision of specialist perinatal mental health services across Scotland.