Change is long overdue for this massive maternal health chasm of wholistic health disparities, transcending physical, behavioral, and psychosocial health, and particularly for women of color (WOC)
Nowadays, postpartum depression is so widely known that people who have never birthed a child know many of the warning signs. But when I had my first child, I was unaware that what I was experiencing wasn’t normal. I was young, and living away from family who could’ve picked up on the signs. Doctors were not as vigilant then as they have been in recent years. I was given a postpartum depression screening at my six-week checkup, and no one asked me any follow-up questions. They handed...
2022 FORUM Building the Maternal Mental Health Constellation Wednesday, Thursday, & Friday March 23 - 25, 2022 FREE Virtual Conference & Networking Event Join our partner 2020 Mom virtually for the 12th annual Maternal and Mental Health FORUM on March 23 - 25. The Maternal Mental Health FORUM is the conference where change agents come to convene, collaborate, and take in cutting-edge content to close gaps in care. Come together with cross-sector stakeholders in health care -...
To read more of Najaf Ahmed's article, please click here. Maria Gomez was 13 years old when she immigrated to the United States with her widowed mother to escape violent political turmoil in Colombia. They landed in Virginia on a snowy day with no boots, no coat, and not speaking a word of English. Together, they faced many challenges while navigating their new life. In spite of them, Maria’s gratitude and drive to give back led her to a nursing career. She ultimately joined a group of...
://www.ucsf.edu/news/2022/03/422426/prenatal-mindfulness-program-improves-stress-response-infants?fbclid=IwAR0NLfWp56t30Df1WMhYsy-xwCKf0qBTtbdz8ZS4dEDl-8COaSVNoPyp8iI https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2022/03/422426/prenatal-mindfulness-program-improves-stress-response-infants?fbclid=IwAR0NLfWp56t30Df1WMhYsy-xwCKf0qBTtbdz8ZS4dEDl-8COaSVNoPyp8iI
By Jason DeParle, Photo: Olga Koric/Alamy, The New York Times, January 24, 2022 A study that provided poor mothers with cash stipends for the first year of their children’s lives appears to have changed the babies’ brain activity in ways associated with stronger cognitive development, a finding with potential implications for safety net policy. The differences were modest — researchers likened them in statistical magnitude to moving to the 75th position in a line of 100 from the 81st — and...
By Elissa Strauss, Photo: Getty Images, January 14, 2022 The fight for universal paid parental leave has been dominated by women. It's mostly women who birth and feed babies, and therefore it is mostly women who are too often left to choose between healing from birth and adequately caring for their newborn, or a paycheck. It's a choice few would want to make, and yet the vast majority of new moms are put in that position and suffer. As a result, women are more likely to get angry, and then...
By Terri Huggins, Illustration: iStock/Washington Post Illustration, The Lily, January 4, 2022 When it comes to taking care of their health, Black women in the United States have a lot working against them, according to research. They are three times as likely to die of a pregnancy-related cause as White women. They have the highest rate of obesity in comparison to other groups, and they experience higher rates of discrimination, which is a stressor related to poor physical and mental health...
By Kerry Dooley Young, Photo: Toshimasa Ishibashi/Flickr, Association of Health Care Journalists, January 11, 2022 April 1 marks the kickoff date for a federal option that makes it easier for states to extend postpartum Medicaid coverage to one year after childbirth from the current 60-day standard. Journalists can now find out how well their states have prepared to take advantage of this Medicaid-expansion pathway, which Congress created as part of last year’s American Rescue Plan...
By Pooja Lakshmin, Photo: Csilla Klenyánszki, The New York Times, February 4, 2021 As a psychiatrist specializing in women’s mental health, nearly every mother I have treated during the pandemic fights through decision fatigue, rage and a feeling of powerlessness every day. This isn’t breaking news. Burnout among parents, in particular moms, has been a defining principle of this global disaster. Clinical-level burnout is defined by a triad of symptoms: exhaustion, a sense of futility and...
By Kassie McClung, Photo: The Frontier, Center for Health Journalism, December 6, 2021 Laughter filled the living room of Carmen and Daniel Gibson’s second-floor apartment in Tulsa as they practiced swaddling a baby doll, gently wrapping it in a white blanket. Their doula, Ashlee Wilson, sat nearby and offered advice and words of encouragement. “So, the first thing is, it doesn’t have to be perfect, right,” Wilson said as Daniel carefully crossed a corner of the blanket over the doll. “A...
Upon learning that you are expecting to welcome a new life into this world, you may be hit with a mixture of emotions; sometimes you are unsure how to feel. One emotion every parent is bound to feel is some degree of stress. Stress, the result of a person feeling incapable of coping with a negative situation, affects people differently, and yet no one is immune to the dangers of too much stress. With the growing amount of research on adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs, and their...
By Anne Branigin, Photo: Teresa Crawford/AP;iStock;Washington Post illustration, The Lily, December 6, 2021 The day she introduced the “Momnibus” in March 2020, Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-Ill.) warned of a public health crisis that would not abate unless lawmakers took action: Black birthing parents were dying at unacceptable rates, she said. “While maternal mortality rates continue to drop around the world, they are rising in the U.S., leaving behind devastated families and children who will...
By Cecilia Nowell, Illustration: iStock/Washington Post Illustration, The Lily, December 6, 2021 At the Safe Sisters Circle, a nonprofit in Washington, D.C., founder and executive director Alana C. Brown said she has worked with “countless” survivors of intimate partner violence who were abused while pregnant. While providing legal services to survivors in the city’s predominantly Black Ward 7 and 8, Brown said she’s witnessed that sometimes the abuse isn’t only physical; she’s seen...
El Jardín Birth and Family began the Birth in Pieces project in 2015. A labor of love, this project spanned multiple years and took various twists and turns as we interviewed more and more women. Patterns emerged. We realized that these individual narratives, together, painted a picture of modern birth culture. What's wrong with birth in the USA? It's time to ask mothers. The film is the outcome of their work interviewing mothers and their partners talking about their experiences with birth.