A new Labour MP will speak in parliament on Wednesday of her anguish over her friend’s suicide just 10 weeks after giving birth – despite the friend having repeatedly sought help for her anxiety.
Laura Kyrke-Smith, the MP for Aylesbury, will call for more specific mental health support to be embedded in maternity services.
Kyrke-Smith told the Guardian she was determined to use her time in parliament to push for change in memory of her friend Sophie, a mother of three young girls, who died when her youngest was just two months old.
In a debate in Westminster Hall on Wednesday, Kyrke-Smith will say her friend was a highly talented woman with a first-class Cambridge degree with a career at the Foreign Office, but went into a spiral of anxiety after her third child was born.
She said the pair were in regular contact on WhatsApp after the birth, when Sophie was concerned about her baby’s feeding.
“She took herself to A&E with concerns about the baby’s milk intake – which in retrospect I suspect were more a reflection of my friend’s anxiety than her baby’s feeding – and spent the night there,” Kyrke-Smith will tell MPs.
“She was discharged after one night. I don’t know if or how her own mental health was assessed. But the day after, her messages were quite distressed. And two days later, she took her own life.”
Kyrke-Smith said she hoped that, after the debate, she could examine whether there were any improvements that could be made to the mental health bill, which is now in the House of Lords. Suicide is the leading cause of maternal death in the period from six weeks to a year after birth.
Kyrke-Smith said that her surprise election victory – her majority is 630 – had made her determined to make an impact on the subject.
“Since losing Sophie, I have become aware of how prevalent maternal mental health challenges are, but how little attention they get compared with the physical challenges of pregnancy, birth and that first year after birth,” she said.
“I knew that I wanted to change this if I was elected to parliament. I want to do right by Sophie and I want to make sure that other women get the support they need and deserve.”
Kyrke-Smith will say in her speech that improvements have been made in recent years, including an increase in specialist perinatal mental health services for women with the most severe and complex issues across England. But, she said, care remained “a postcode lottery” with disadvantaged women more likely to miss out.
“I wonder if any healthcare professionals asked Sophie not just how the baby was, but how she was,” Kyrke-Smith will say in her speech.
“I wonder if the discussions about her baby’s feeding were had in a way that sought to reduce her anxiety.
“I wonder if she was given less attention because this was her third child, and her earlier experiences had been smoother – I certainly experienced less attention with my own third child. I will never know.”
The MP said she was calling for aprotection of specialist maternal care in severe cases as part of the NHS five-year plan on mental health, and better integration of mental health care into all routine contact during pregnancy and after birth, with mental health prioritised in the same way as physical health.
She will say there should be a renewed focus on community support, saying she believed that the Covid-19 pandemic contributed to her friend’s feeling of isolation, and that there should be a mission to help friends and families build awareness to help mothers who are struggling.
“Did I worry about her being depressed? Yes. Did I worry about suicidal thoughts? Honestly, yes. Did I think she might take her own life? No. I have struggled with the guilt that I didn’t somehow do something to stop it. But I also recognise now how ignorant I was.”
The care minister, Stephen Kinnock, was expected to respond to the debate, which Kyrke-Smith said was oversubscribed with MPs hoping to speak.
Kyrke-Smith is being supported by the Alliance for Maternal Mental Health. “Too often, mental health support is seen as an added luxury rather than an integral part of maternity care. This must change,” campaigns head, Karen Middleton, said. “Maternal mental health problems are treatable, and the right support can be life-changing, even life-saving.”
