Lindsay Mitchell
lindsaymitchell.blogspot.com
An RNZ headline reads:
High rate of suicide in pregnant and post-natal women
“Suicide is the leading cause of death during pregnancy and the postnatal period, and Maori women are three times more likely to die this way, a new report has found.”
That’s an alarming fact and one that somewhat surprised me.
Any suicide is a terrible tragedy but perhaps even more so when it involves an unborn child.
After a moment’s reflection, my analytical mind immediately wants to know, how many?
The report is from the Helen Clark Foundation and while the assertion is made and referred to several times in the paper, no statistics are provided. The claim is referenced though and takes us to this source – the maternal section of Perinatal Mortality Review report.
In the thirteen years that span 2006 to 2018 there were 30 suicides or two annually on average.
There were 809,831 maternities in the same period. Maternal suicides are in fact very rare.
But rarity doesn’t make for headlines.
Furthermore, there were 27 in the period 2006 to 2016, leaving three in 2017/ 2018.
Maternal suicides are reducing.
For context 65 young people under twenty took their lives in the year to June 2020.
Update: On TV One the maternal suicide number has grown to 10 every year.