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New mums should have mental and physical health checks after six months, say MPs

THE mandatory check-up for six-week-old babies should also require doctors to assess mothers’ mental health, MPs agreed yesterday.

Labour MP Ellie Reeves, who is eight months pregnant, recalled her struggle with pre-natal depression, anxiety and OCD when she was expecting her first child.

She said that she had found it hard to seek help at the time due to shame and worry.

“Society tells us that being pregnant and having a baby should be a wonderful, joyous time, but the reality for many can feel quite different,” Ms Reeves added.

Half of women face mental health difficulties at some point during their pregnancy or in the year after a birth, she said citing figures from the National Childbirth Trust.

Deputy speaker Eleanor Laing, in closing the debate, said: “It is wonderful to hear the truth spoken in this place.

“Especially in an atmosphere that for decades considered childbirth to be some form of weakness, rather than the process through which every human being arrives in this world.”

 

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