Stacey’s Story: Mother And Baby Units

Tonight’s episode (Monday 22nd February) finally saw Martin secure a place for Stacey and Arthur at a Mother and Baby Unit (MBU). Justine Cawley, Clinical Nurse Manager and Sasha Singh, Modern Matron work at an MBU in Hackney and worked closely with the EastEnders team to ensure the storyline was authentic as possible.

"We were really excited when we first heard that EastEnders was going to be tackling a postpartum psychosis storyline. It’s a rare illness and there are still lots of people who are not even aware that it exists. For such a huge programme to show it, in terms of educating people around the illness and reducing stigma, is fantastic.

Around 1 or 2 in 1,000 women who give birth will develop postpartum psychosis. It can be a really severe illness, but with the right treatment women will make a full recovery and go on to have a healthy and loving bond with their child.

We work in a twelve bed mother and baby unit where we look after women who are either in late pregnancy or up to a year post-birth. The reason this unit was set up was to provide specialist care for women. This means that pregnant women and new mothers can get the mental health care they need whilst not being separated from their babies at a critical time in the baby’s development. Mothers and their infants can develop their unique bond, and women can get the specialist psychological help they need to recover.

We also offer admissions to mums who are at risk of developing a perinatal mental illness. For example, we know that mums like Stacey, who have a diagnosis of BPAD have a 50% chance of developing a postpartum psychosis after giving birth. If they can be admitted in the late stages of pregnancy we can build a therapeutic relationship with them and observe for signs of relapse, ensure appropriate treatment is discussed with the mum and family; start medications as soon as it is indicated and also support them in the high risk period immediately after giving birth. Stacey’s quick decline after giving birth is also a common feature of a postpartum psychosis and women will often be admitted in the first few weeks after giving birth, which can be extremely traumatic for both the mum’s and their families.

We were initially approached by one of the show’s researchers to help answer some of their questions around mother and baby units. That then developed into meeting with various members of production. We gave them a tour of the unit as it’s quite difficult to picture what an MBU looks and feels like if you’ve never been to one before.

We also arranged a meeting between the scriptwriters and lots of different professionals to give them some kind idea of what goes on - what angle each kind of professional is coming from and what treatment a mother would get when she comes onto the unit. The team that looks after the ward is made up of many specialists – nurses, nursery nurses, doctors, psychologist, parent infant psychotherapist, occupational therapist – the list goes on and on.

EastEnders’ portrayal of Martin’s struggle to get Stacey a place in an MBU is a very real difficulty. We get lots of referrals and sadly we aren’t able to facilitate all of those referrals. We are a national unit so we don’t just look after mums from London but get referrals from across the country, so I think that the struggle the family has had on the show is very real. In addition, something we often see is where family members try to cope at home as Martin did. Asking for help can be very daunting and people can be worried about what the repercussions will be if a mum is admitted to hospital or sectioned.

We hope that EastEnders highlighting postpartum psychosis will reduce the stigma around the illness and help to educate people. Mental health problems in pregnancy are not uncommon and not enough people talk about them. In fact this condition does not discriminate and although most women find it difficult to talk about, there is a lot of acknowledgement of how difficult this can be. There’s a lot of pressure these days to be the perfect mum – for example not all mum’s find it easy to bond with their baby immediately after giving birth. Sadly, for a lot of women the reality is so different and it can take a lot of work. If you do have a mental health problem it can affect how you bond with your baby and simple tasks can prove very difficult to carry out. Certainly from our experience the mental health and well-being of the mothers under our care does impact on the baby and this is why we ensure all mothers and their babies admitted to the unit are thought about as individuals and as well as a dyad.

It’s great that the show is educating people around services that are available and that there is specialist help out there. It’s good that people are aware that there are units such as ours out there and the work they can do to ensure the needs of the mothers, babies and the wider family are held in mind."

You can find out more about Justine and Sasha’s work and MBU services that are available at www.elft.nhs.uk