King's Birthday Honours: Mother who shared experience of postnatal depression becomes an MBE

A mother who suffered from severe depression while pregnant and after her son was born has said she wants to share her MBE honour with all those who worked to establish perinatal mental health services in Northern Ireland.

Lindsay Robinson said she was humbled and still in shock after learning she is to become a Member of the Order of the British Empire in the King's Birthday Honours.

She is being recognised for services to perinatal mental health in Northern Ireland following years of campaigning work.

She told how she became aware of the lack of services for mothers in the region after her son was born in 2013.

She said: "I had quite severe ante-natal and post-natal depression which unfortunately wasn't diagnosed or picked up until quite a bit later, until my little boy was nearly two.

"As I began to recover I began to understand what I'd been going through and why life had been so difficult.

"I realised that there was very little awareness, particularly for us mums, of perinatal mental health.

"At that stage in Northern Ireland there was a lack of services and places where mums and their families could find support."

She decided to share her experiences to help other mothers in the same situation.

Mrs Robinson added: "As I recovered I just wanted to put my energy into reaching out to other parents, other families and other mums in making sure they knew that there was a name for what they were going through and that they weren't alone.

"But also playing my part in making sure that services did become available and that other people would have access to what I didn't have access to.

"If I had had access to specialist perinatal mental health services I think my story would have been completely different."

In January 2021, following years of campaigning, then health minister Robin Swann announced funding for the development of new specialist perinatal mental health services for Northern Ireland.

Mrs Robinson said: "In each trust there is now a dedicated team, a multidisciplinary team.

"It is a whole specialist team there to support mum in the ante-natal period or the post-natal period if she is having a struggle with her mental health.

"When I started out I didn't imagine I would be campaigning.

"At the start I just wanted to share a little bit of our experience and my story and raise some awareness. It is one of those things that sometimes you are just in the right place at the right time.

"I met lots of different people and became aware there was a need for this campaign and got quite involved. It all snowballed from there.

"It has been quite important for me because it has given purpose to that pain we went through. That was an awful, awful time.

"Even though it was very painful there was a purpose which came out of it.

"That has been lovely to know something good has come out of something that was awful for me."

Mrs Robinson said she received notification about the MBE honour several weeks ago.

She said: "I thought it was a letter for an appointment I was waiting for so I opened it.

"I was expecting a time for an appointment and I couldn't compute what I was looking at.

"Then I realised what it was. I was quite stunned and it took me quite a bit of time to sink in.

"I'm just really humbled. I am still not sure I quite believe it. It is so wonderful and so kind of whoever nominated me. I'm still quite in shock."

She added: "It was a huge community effort of mums and families and healthcare professionals, all working together over many years.

"I think it was a team effort to get the specialist services up and running. While my name is on this and I am very honoured, this is a team effort."

Mrs Robinson said the work to establish services for new mothers in Northern Ireland is not over.

She said: "There still needs to be a mother and baby unit and the funding still isn't there.

"That is the next piece of the jigsaw. We still have a way to go."