**6. Health sector regulations**

The private sector is not governed by the same regulations, governance or policies of the Australian Government public sector. Local level decisions are made within each individual hospital, Board of Directors or company electing to prioritise a woman's psychosocial well-being through risk assessment, management and referral. Nonetheless, as stated by Gemmill [56], electing not to perform postnatal screening and assessment due to a lack of mental health resources, or the perception that it is too complex, is discounting the surmountable evidence-based international literature on the pertinent role of psychosocial well-being on maternal and infant outcomes. The administration of a postnatal screening assessment that identifies women at risk of postnatal anxiety and depression/currently experiencing anxiety/depression should be considered best (evidence-based) practice in order to support the long-term wellbeing of mother and baby [6, 15, 45, 46, 57].

Within private obstetric care, obstetricians are the answerable health professional for ensuring that psychosocial assessment and screening with the EPDS is utilised. Relevant health care providers, including midwives at the hospital at which the woman will give birth, need to be informed if there are concerns and relevant information consistently and clearly documented in the women's notes and discharge summary [15].

It is clearly recommended that existing state-wide midwifery databases be made able to link private and public hospital data with community or General Practitioner services across Australia to identify women at risk of/with postnatal mental health problems [6, 45, 46]. The federal government's introduction of an electronic health record may be useful, contributing to improved data sharing and linkage between service providers. iCOPE is also integrated with My Health Record in Australia.
