Debate contribution: Women's Health Strategy
Debate contribution by Ms Sian Mulholland on .
- MLA
- Ms Sian Mulholland
- Party at the time
- Alliance Party
- Date
- 13 February 2024
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Private Members' Business
- Heading
- Women's Health Strategy
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4206277
Read the official Assembly record
Text
Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker, and congratulations on your new role. I proudly rise to support the motion on behalf of the many women in my constituency of North Antrim. First, however, as this is my maiden speech, I am in the unusual position of acknowledging not one but two predecessors. It would be remiss of me not to acknowledge the almost two decades of representation that Mervyn Storey gave to my constituency, and I thank him for his service. Patricia O'Lynn was unable to avail herself of the opportunity to rise in the Chamber on behalf of our constituents, but I thank her for the work that she carried out in the months following her historic election to this place as the first woman elected in North Antrim. Rest assured, I am honoured to represent North Antrim now, and I will do all that is in my power, with passion and heart, to represent those who voted for an alternative. They say that it takes a village to raise a child, and that is never more true than for the child of a politician. I recognise the support of my family, especially my mother, Harriet, and my husband, Kieran, who have taken over the primary caring responsibilities for our beautiful seven-week-old daughter and our two wonderful sons. I have promised Alfie and Cathal that I will be home for bedtime stories tonight, so I thank them for their patience. As the first mother to represent my constituency, I am passionate about the voices of women and parents being heard in the Chamber. That brings me to the motion. It is so pertinent not only to my very recent experience but to the experiences of many in my predominantly rural community. That brings its own challenges in access to healthcare, before we even begin to address the inequalities that exist for women in the healthcare arena.
The Maternal Mental Health Alliance (MMHA) recognised in its 2023 briefing that there has been an improvement in service provision across Northern Ireland in recent years. For example, all five health trusts now have a community perinatal mental health team in place. That is a very welcome development. I pay tribute to those professionals and the Minister for their work on developing and rolling out those teams, but we have a long way to go. The MMHA outlines a number of risk factors specific to perinatal mental health in Northern Ireland, including the variations between trusts that make service provision a postcode lottery. Everyone in Northern Ireland should have the opportunity to avail themselves of the same level of service provision and access to perinatal mental health. We also need to see the development of workforce planning and funding to increase training opportunities in order to bolster our workforce. Without properly trained and fairly paid staff, there will be no one to deliver these precious services. A number of years ago, I was able to engage with the Women's Resource and Development Agency (WRDA) Maternal Advocacy and Support project — the MAs. Through that engagement, I shared my experience of perinatal and postnatal mental ill health. During that most vulnerable time, my abiding memory is of the absolute, crippling fear that my baby would be taken from me, either as a result of me accessing the care and help that I so desperately needed or because I would be deemed unfit for even experiencing the horrendous postnatal anxiety and depression that I felt. That fear would have been somewhat alleviated had there been a specific mother-and-baby unit. The lack of an Executive has certainly hampered the implementation and delivery of that crucial service, which is definitely regrettable. The commitment and work done to prepare the business case is great, but we need to see funding and commitment to delivery. I call on the Minister to outline a time frame for delivery of the unit. Without the delivery of a mother-and-baby unit, Northern Ireland risks falling further behind the quality and variety of specialist services that are offered in other jurisdictions. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK without a specialist unit. In addition to perinatal mental health delivery, we need a properly resourced women's strategy that delivers a comprehensive and multidisciplinary approach to the care pathway for new mothers. The antenatal care received by women can be wonderful and can be focused on the recovery and full support of women at a vulnerable time, but there is also potential for women to fall through the cracks when they are signed off by a community midwife up to two weeks post partum, with care transferred back to the GP and, sometimes, back to the hospital of birth. For women, especially those with a traumatic or surgical birth, wrap-around, multidisciplinary-level care is absolutely essential to ensure that all mothers begin their journey into motherhood feeling valued, seen and cared for. I do not want Northern Ireland to be a place apart from the rest of these islands because it is falling behind; rather, I want Northern Ireland to be set apart and known as the place where the antenatal and postnatal health of women is prioritised and funded to the extent that our families enjoy world-beating services. A women's health strategy must include those vital components.
882 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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