Black mothers twice as likely as white mothers to be hospitalised with perinatal mental illness

There were 0.7 admissions for severe puerperal mental illness per 1,000 deliveries for black patients, compared with 0.2 admissions per 1,000 deliveries for white patients. Photograph: Ariel Skelley/Getty Images

Black mothers are over twice as likely to be admitted to hospital with perinatal mental illnesses than their white counterparts, a Guardian analysis of NHS figures shows, with the racial disparity being described as “horrifying”.

There were 777 admissions to NHS England hospitals of people with a primary diagnosis for puerperal mental disorders – occurring in the six weeks after childbirth – between 2020 and 2023. Of these, black women made up 12%, despite accounting for only 5% of deliveries in the same period. They were also more than twice as likely to be admitted to hospital than their white counterparts, according to the analysis.