Читать книгу Managing Medical and Obstetric Emergencies and Trauma - Группа авторов - Страница 43

Mental health disorders are common in pregnancy and after delivery. However suicide, which causes the most deaths overall, most commonly occurs between 6 weeks and 1 year after delivery and because they occur more than 42 days after delivery are missed by the standard definition of maternal death. Suicide is usually by violent means. Most women who die by suicide have a history of an affective disorder, which has a high risk of recurrence after delivery. Previous psychiatric history must be identified in early pregnancy and the risk managed proactively. Psychiatric deaths were last analysed in the 2018 MBRRACE‐UK report. This highlighted the huge variations in provision of mental health services around the UK and Ireland and the importance of ‘red flag’ symptoms such as new thoughts or acts of violent self‐harm.