<p>Inpatient Perinatal Mental Health Facilities</p>

Part of 1. 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:17 pm on 28 March 2017.

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Photo of Steffan Lewis Steffan Lewis Plaid Cymru 2:17, 28 March 2017

I thank the First Minister for that answer. I hope he has the opportunity to hear the experiences of mothers in Wales who’ve had the courage to speak out on their individual experiences, like Charlotte Harding from Cardiff, whose husband took two years off work to care for her and their two boys after developing postpartum psychosis. I’ve applied the Welsh Government’s own criteria to the current situation in this country, based on the information I’ve obtained from LHBs, and they’re failing the Government’s own criteria. We know that it’s going to cost more to send Welsh mothers to inpatient centres in England than it would have to keep these facilities open in Wales and we know that community provision is patchy. But politics aside, can I plead with the First Minister to put, as a matter of urgency, this issue at the top of his agenda so that mothers in Wales do not face the choice of being separated from their newborn babies or separated from their families or, even worse, not having the mental health facilities that they deserve in their own country?