Caring for mum and baby

Oct 2 2008 by Karen Wilson, The Journal

WHEN baby Eve was born 16 months ago, she was the best present her family could have. But for mum, Claire Keys, recovering from an emergency caesarean section, things didn’t feel right.

And when Eve was five weeks old, Claire was diagnosed with postnatal depression. The condition became more severe and eventually, she was admitted to the specialist mother and baby unit at St George’s Park in Morpeth.

“The community team had suggested that I should go to hospital but my prejudices made me keep saying no,” said Claire. “Then I went to look at the unit and was really impressed and a lot of things I had been worrying about were explained.”

She spent four-and-a-half months at the Beadnell unit with Eve, and her husband Steve was able to stay or visit whenever he wanted.

“The staff there saved my life and ensured my husband still has a wife and my daughter has a mother,” said Claire.

“I owe them more than a simple ‘thank you’ conveys.

“I was on 24-hour observation for a long time and I know I probably wasn’t the easiest patient. But there’s a whole range of treatments and eventually, one of them worked.

“It was a long, hard slog but everyone at the unit made me realise there was light at the end of the tunnel, which for so long, sounded like an annoying cliché.”

Now Claire is a busy working mum back home with Steve and Eve, but she makes time to go back to the unit as a service user representative, talking to mothers, holding community meetings and even using her professional human resources skills to help staff with recruitment. Beadnell was recently recognised as one of the best mother and baby units in the country. It was praised for its staff, spacious environment, and care and treatment in a Royal College of Psychiatrists quality network review.

The six-bed unit takes mothers and babies from across the region and provides a range of mental health treatments as well as help with parenting skills.

The unit has en suite double bedrooms so that partners can stay when appropriate and staff work hard to create an atmosphere that is homely and caring.