New mums left to cope without post-natal depression support

MELISSA Brunet is worried having a baby in Darwin will mean she won’t have access to essential services to cope with post-natal depression.

Melissa Brunet with daughter Grace 16mths reads some supportive literature to help with post-natal depression.

MELISSA Brunet suffered severe post-natal depression after the birth of her first two children in Melbourne. Now she’s worried having a baby in Darwin will mean she won’t have access to essential services to cope with the condition.

After the birth of her first child she ended up spending four months in a mother-baby unit and after the birth of her second child she spent four weeks in one.

Mother-baby units are specialist mental health facilities designed for women who need psychiatric care while looking after a baby.

For Ms Brunet, 32, of Larrakeyah, it was an essential service that made sure she could get the help she needed to deal with her post-natal depression while looking after her new babies.

It is now a service she won’t have access to when she gives birth to her fourth child next year in Darwin.

“I’m worried that if I do develop post-natal depression again up here I won’t be able to access a mother-baby unit … they don’t exist in the Northern Territory,” she said.

“I’ll be forced to leave my family and go back to Melbourne to get access to a service like that.”

One in seven women will suffer from post-natal depression during their pregnancy or after giving birth.

READ: BABY BOOM AT ROYAL DARWIN HOSPITAL

This week marks Post-natal Depression Awareness Week and facilitators of peer-based support group F.R.E.S.H. Lauren Shanasy and Jo Gray say services available to women suffering post-natal depression are virtually non-existent in the Top End.

“F.R.E.S.H. is the only group of its kind in Darwin that we are aware of, and it is only for Defence families,” Ms Gray said.

The women founded F.R.E.S.H. after moving to Darwin and realising there was a major gap when it came to services for post-natal depression.

The group was made possible through the support of the Defence Community Organisation, who have provided the women with the resources required, including a social worker, to set up the therapeutic service.

“We would love to see F.R.E.S.H. extended to include all women but without funding it’s just not possible,” Ms Gray said.

Mrs Shanasy said the Government’s perinatal mental health service, which can be accessed through referral only, provided an excellent service to Territory women but three full-time staff members were not enough to meet the demand.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said perinatal mental health services were “comprehensive” and provided NT-wide.

The spokeswoman also said a mother-baby unit was not on the cards for Territory women.