Debate contribution: Mother-and-baby Unit

Debate contribution by Mrs Linda Dillon on 7 October 2025.

MLA

Mrs Linda Dillon

Party at the time

Sinn Féin

Date

7 October 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Mother-and-baby Unit

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5164689

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Go raibh maith agat, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle.

I thank everyone who contributed to the debate on the motion today. One of the sad things that we are saying is that women and babies are still being failed on this island. In 2025, mothers are still forcibly separated from their babies, and I do not say that for the shock value; I say it because it is the truth, and it is a sad truth. I do not doubt everyone's commitment to changing the situation. I thank Sian and the Minister for sharing their personal experiences, which is not easy, but it shows that it affects every single person. People in the Chamber are affected by all the things that we talk about. Sometimes people forget that, but we are impacted on, and we have very real and relevant experiences. It is important to acknowledge that. My colleague Órlaithí Flynn, Robbie and others spoke about the advocacy groups, clinicians and families who have kept the campaign alive, and that is very true. I pay tribute to my colleague Órlaithí Flynn, because I do not remember — I think that Robbie mentioned this as well — a time when she was not raising the issue of perinatal mental health, and specifically the need for a mother-and-baby unit. Even before we were elected, when we both worked for the party, I remember being at Sinn Féin meetings, and Órlaithí was banging the drum about the issue at that time. I appreciate that she has stuck with the issue, no matter what brief she has been in, because she sees it as really important. I will throw the safety issue back to the Minister, because it has been raised in the amendment. It is important to get an understanding of what is best practice and what is safe. I accept that an interim measure will not be best practice, because it will not be a mother-and-baby unit or what we have envisaged, and, more importantly, what the advocacy groups and the families who have suffered in the system want. "Suffered" is probably the right word, because it has not just been an experience: it has been suffering. We need to understand what can be put in place, which probably will not be best practice, but will be safe. I am making that challenge for positive reasons, and I am not criticising for the sake of it, because none of us wants to do that today. I will go back to the point that was raised by Órlaithí and, potentially, Nuala about whether what is in place in Exeter and other places in England and Wales has been looked at as possible practice, if not best practice. I listened to Julie Anderson say this morning on 'Good Morning Ulster' that she is concerned that the unit will not be built during her time as chairperson. She did not talk about interim measures being unsafe. That does not mean that, if we looked at what is possible, we would find that they are not unsafe, but we really need to look at what is possible. As Sian Mulholland and others said, the current fragmented, complicated service, or lack thereof, is causing additional harm to mothers, their babies and their wider families. We need to remember that, very often, in cases involving a mother and a baby, there are other children as well. Pam spoke about those other children. It is traumatic for a mummy to be separated from any of her children, not just her new baby. That is really difficult. I understand that best practice allows those children and that family connection to be part of the service. That is really important. Órlaithí, Cara and others referred to the failure to collect data. They talked about it being a barrier to addressing the need for a mother-and-baby unit. I do not think that it is necessarily a barrier to that — I think that the Minister has accepted that we need a mother-and-baby unit — but it is a barrier to our understanding of exactly how many women out there are impacted on. We talked about the non-collection of statistics for women who die by suicide within the first year after having a new baby. That is a real problem. There are many women who suffered undiagnosed postpartum perinatal mental health disorders or postpartum psychosis — perhaps the medical profession did not even know about them — who may not be included in the stats that we are talking about today . They may not have taken account of serious adverse incidents in which mothers died. There is potentially a problem out there that we do not even know about.

I accept that it does not all fall to your Department. It is also an issue for the Coroners' Court and others. There is a wider issue, but we need Departments to work together to gather that data. There will be an effect on your Department. Although others may collect the data, there will be a real issue for your Department. Pam outlined the impact on the entire family and other children. Many Members also referenced the approach to women's healthcare. Over the past number of weeks, we have spoken about a number of areas in which, effectively, we have seen neglect in women's healthcare. In this case, that extends to the wider family, the children and the baby. Minister, I am in no doubt that you see the need for a mother-and-baby unit. I accept what you have said about that. You said that you spoke to the previous Health Minister in the South, but I would like to see a conversation between you and the new Health Minister, even about interim measures. Is there the potential for all-Ireland interim measures? I do not know whether that is possible, but the conversation needs to happen. It is a challenge to see what can be done. We ask that your Departments, including the clinicians, work together and see what is possible.

I thank the Member for his intervention. That is right. At the end of the day, clinicians serve their patients; they want to do the very best for mothers, babies and their families. They do not care about borders or how the service is delivered; they just want to be able to deliver the best care. All that we are asking is that we look at the possibilities. I do not doubt that there will be challenges, but we all need to work together. We, as a Health Committee, will certainly support you, Minister, in that regard. I ask the Minister to come back to the Health Committee, first, to tell us what "safe" looks like or why it would be unsafe now to provide an interim service. What conversations, then, can we have with counterparts in the South and across these islands around best practice? We have said that interim measures are in place in England and Wales, so we need to speak to people there to find out what a good interim measure might look like and what the best possible practice is, right now, for women and their babies. I accept what was said about care in the community, and it is vital that we have that. We have talked consistently here, as has the Minister, about health inequalities and the shift left. It is really important that women get the care that they need closest to home when that is the suitable care. We know, however, that there are women who need 24-hour care with their babies, with all the services that have already been outlined, including support from different types of clinicians. I have no doubt that the staff who work in our psychiatric units to treat women with postpartum psychosis and serious mental health episodes after the birth of their baby are doing the very best that they can, but they can only treat the mummy and the mental health disorder that she has at that moment. They do not have the expertise, the skills, the time or the resources to deal with her as a new mother or to deal with her baby and her family. I am asking that we do our best as soon as possible. If we cannot have a mother-and-baby unit soon, what can we put in place that looks after those mothers and their babies? I know that that is what everybody in the Chamber today wants. I ask that we all work together to deliver the best for them all.

1,429 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 13:21 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

Disagree with this assessment?

Classifications can be challenged. A person reads every challenge, and any change is recorded publicly above with its reason.

Challenge this classification