09/10/2025
Sharing this for a very important cause, Kruup is advocating for perinatal mental health services in Tasmania. If you have a story to share, please message her, or we can DM you her email 💙
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Hi everyone. I'm seeking help with a mission near and dear to my heart. Please share this with anyone you know who may want to contribute: mums, partners, family members, friends. 💜
My son recently turned one. I am so proud of my little boy, he is my whole world, but this milestone also brings up hard memories. I lost the first few months of his life to postpartum depression after a scary high-risk pregnancy and premature birth. I barely remember those early weeks, only the haze of tears and intrusive thoughts and memories, struggling to bond with the baby I fought so hard to have. When I reached out for help several times, I was refused support for months by both the Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Service (PIMHS) and the Mother & Baby Unit at the Royal, and I believe that was due to lack of capacity. I couldn't afford private psychology, and my Medicare subsidised sessions were already exhausted through my pregnancy. I was alone.
Tasmania’s perinatal mental health services are already woefully under-resourced. And now I'm led to believe things are deteriorating further — PIMHS are struggling more than ever, and there have been rumours, confirmed last year by a media release on Labor's website, that the move of the MBU from the Royal to New Town will mean it only provides feeding and settling support, not mental health care. This will leave zero inpatient services in Tasmania for mothers struggling with perinatal mental health. To me, that sounds very dangerous. Families will be forced to fly interstate with their newborns just to get help, if they can even afford that. That is unacceptable. And now we are losing the Hobart Clinic, the last remaining private psychiatric facility, which will stretch an already overburdened public system.
I have already been advocating on this issue — I wrote to the previous Health Minister several months ago, and I was featured on the ABC news — but I am clearly getting nowhere on my own. That’s why I am reaching out now.
I need your help, please. I am calling on all Tasmanian mums and their loved ones who have had any experience with (or watched a loved one struggle):
Perinatal mental health issues like depression & anxiety,
PIMHS (Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Service),
The MBU (Mother & Baby Unit) at the Royal Hobart Hospital,
or the closed MBU at St Helens
…to please share your stories. Good or bad — both are important. Please share how it affected you and your family, and what impact professional help had or would've had, and please share if it was difficult to get help.
When these services work, they can make a life-changing difference. But when you can’t access help, the impact on mums and families can be devastating.
My plan is to gather these stories into a single submission to the new Health Minister. I plan to also forward the submission to opposition parties and possibly the media, so that decision-makers and the wider community can hear what families are going through.
If you’re willing, please comment here or send me a private message. You can remain anonymous if you prefer, I will redact your name from anything I submit, just let me know.
No mum should have to fight this hard for help at the most vulnerable time of her life. Alone, we are easy to dismiss, but together, maybe we can't be ignored so easily.
💜 Thank you for reading my post. 💜
