Breedagh Hughes, Northern Ireland board secretary of the Royal College of Midwives, said there is “an urgent need” for a perinatal mental health team in Ulster.

The perinatal stage spans both the time of a woman’s pregnancy and after the birth of her baby

“We have raised this as an issue because we see a serious gap in the service provision in Northern Ireland.

“I am not talking about women with the baby blues or who are naturally down with tiredness after giving birth by not sleeping – I am talking about women who are generally contemplating suicide, harming or killing their baby.

“We need to set up an immediate specialist team in Northern Ireland to deal with women who are either pregnant or have had their children and have serious mental health problems.

“There needs to be training for health visitors, nurses and doctors so they know how to recognise a woman with the illness and who presents feeling anxious or disconnected in the perinatal time, so their problem is taken seriously.

“There is no specialist service of this nature in Northern Ireland, apart from one doctor in the Belfast Trust. One doctor is not enough.

“Women who do present with serious mental illness are generally referred to general psychiatry services, which means they are put on a waiting list.

“A woman who is seriously depressed in this way is also an awful burden on their family. Very often a family deals with it by taking the baby away from them and putting the woman into a general mental health institution.”

Ms Hughes said in Scotland there are three mother and baby units – with six elsewhere in Britain.

There are none on the island of Ireland.