The NHS has been criticised for failing women who suffer from postnatal depression by denying many of them potentially life-saving services to help them cope. Information  from 193 NHS trusts across England reveal that only 50 provide a specialist perinatal mental health service to women around the time they give birth and five others offer some sort of provision. More than half of the trusts disclosed that they do not offer any formal help, even though one in ten mothers experiences postnatal depression. Even among the 50 trusts operating such a service, 26 employ only one dedicated perinatal mental health midwife or doctor and many of those work part-time. Government health advisers recommended seven years ago that such care should be available everywhere. The National Childbirth Trust (NCT) said it was absolutely disgraceful that so few parts of the health service provided specialist help to women, some of whom end up taking their own lives (and their children’s lives) because they cannot cope.