North Island Parent-Infant unit urgently needed

North Island Parent-Infant unit urgently needed

Infant Mental Health Association of Aotearoa New Zealand

Date: 18 June 2012

The annual report of the Perinatal and Maternal Mortality Review Committee (PMMRC) tragically demonstrates that in New Zealand, suicide continues to be the leading cause of perinatal maternal deaths. However, this tip-of-the-iceberg statistic sadly does not capture the extent of suffering depressive illness inflicts on mothers, infants and families.

The Infant Mental Health Association of Aotearoa New Zealand (IMHAANZ), New Zealand clinicians and services, the ‘Healthy Beginnings’ report, and the Perinatal and Maternal Mortality Review Committee (PMMRC) all advocate for development of a specialised Parent-Infant unit in the North Island of New Zealand. As it stands, New Zealand has only one mother-infant unit, the Mothers and Babies Service, in Christchurch. It is highly regarded and well utilised, however has only 5 beds and cots and serves the South Island only.

It is internationally recognised that providing such services is of enormous benefit to women with perinatal mental illnesses, with ongoing benefit to infant development and attachment relationships. Furthermore, developing such services is a powerful agent for shaping societal attitudes. Greater recognition of the importance of this period in families’ lives would have broad implications in reducing New Zealand’s woeful performance relative to other OECD countries, in which we rank 29th in child health and safety measures (1). New Zealand is also shamed by its child abuse statistics and is specifically mentioned in the United Nations International Study on Violence against Children (2). Investing in relationships and parents’ mental health at the outset is the acknowledged, evidenced and ethical investment needed to remedy this situation.

(1) Doing Better for Children. OECD 2009 available at: http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/19/4/43570328.pdf (2) The report of the independent expert for the United Nations study on violence against children, Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, submitted pursuant to General Assembly resolution 60/231. Available at: http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N06/491/05/PDF/N0649105.pdf?OpenElement

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