A permanent regional mother and baby unit, providing specialist inpatient mental health care, is finally going ahead in the grounds of the Belfast City Hospital, with a design team to be appointed immediately. This comes after decades of campaigning by mothers and families who'd rather not have to choose between getting treated for psychosis and keeping their babies with them.
Women who develop postpartum psychosis often experience hallucinations, delusions, and restlessness, and if left untreated may harm themselves and their babies. Currently, about 100 women in Northern Ireland are admitted to adult psychiatric wards each year without their babies, because the rest of the UK has 22 such units but Northern Ireland has exactly zero.
The health minister, Mike Nesbitt, called this a 'significant step forward' and aims for it to open 'no later than 2028/29'. Speaking on the appointed site - which is currently waste ground - Nesbitt noted that interim and temporary facilities discussed proved not to be cost effective. A scoping exercise confirmed that alternative options, including a dedicated hospital ward, would not deliver a materially shorter timeline, better value for money, or the same level of safety and assurance for mothers and babies.
Seven health ministers have supported the idea over the years, but funding has never materialized until now. Last June, a BBC Spotlight investigation heard harrowing testimonies from women who'd suffered severe postpartum psychosis and postnatal depression and were cared for without their babies. Last November, during a Stormont debate, Nesbitt admitted the unit was not just overdue or long overdue, but 'long, long overdue' - though at that stage he couldn't guarantee funding. Now he can, which is nice.