The Deirdre O'Shaughnessy Podcast: Laura O’Connell calls for better mental health care for new mothers

The comedian discusses her experience of postnatal depression, psychiatric care and the challenges new mothers face seeking treatment

Comedian Laura O’Connell opens up about postnatal depression and motherhood

Comedian Laura O’Connell is a familiar face to Irish Instagram users for her tongue-in-cheek videos of midwives and public health nurses moving around shocked new mothers.

Her health professional persona is so convincing that she is regularly assumed to be a midwife or nurse herself, but the character is rooted in her own experiences of new motherhood and postnatal depression.

Now, she has joined forces with the National Women’s Council of Ireland to call for better mental health care for new mothers, specifically the establishment of a mother and baby psychiatric unit.

In this wee's episode of the Deirdre O'Shaughnessy Podcast, she speaks openly about her unexpected pregnancy at a time when her life was already in turmoil, wandering the streets of Bray with her new baby and eventually seeking counselling from Nurture.

A psychiatric admission years later made her realise she had never dealt with the pain and trauma she had experienced as a new mother, while the experiences of a friend she met in hospital showed her the difficulties new mothers face when seeking treatment.