Mental health in the United Kingdom
Agnes Hann of the National Childbirth Trust said, "These findings are shocking, and mean that thousands of women experiencing potentially serious perinatal mental health problems are not getting the support they need. Perinatal mental illness can have a severe and long-term impact on mothers, babies and families. In extreme circumstances, it can result in tragedy – suicide is a leading cause of maternal death." From roughly 10% to 20% of women giving birth experience some type of mental illness such as anxiety and depression or more complex problems like PTSD and psychosis. With about 665,000 births a year in England 66,500–133,000 women a year develop illnesses. In 2016, 13,000 women were treated by perinatal teams while 800 became inpatients. This means the majority were untreated.
Maternal deprivation
Concern with the harm of separation from the mother is characteristic of the belief systems behind some complementary and alternative (CAM) psychotherapies. Such belief systems are concerned not only with the effect of the young child's separation from the care of the mother, but with an emotional attachment between mother and child which advocates of these systems believe to develop prenatally. Such attachment is said to lead to emotional trauma if the child is separated from the birth mother and adopted, even if this occurs on the day of birth and even if the adoptive family provides all possible love and care. These beliefs were at one time in existence among psychologists of psychoanalytic background. Today, however, beliefs in prenatal communication between mothers and infants are largely confined to unconventional thinkers such as William Emerson.