Tagged With "Black mothers"
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CMS Issue Brief: Improving Access to Maternal Health Care in Rural Communities
In an ideal maternal health system, all women would have access to comprehensive, seamless medical care with links to behavioral, economic, and social supports. Additionally, they would be engaged with this system before, during, and after pregnancy. Across the United States, many women are not receiving care in this ideal system, and women in rural communities face unique challenges that make it harder for them to reach this ideal or any care at all in some cases. Because maternal health...
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Comics Shed Light On The 'Scary Thoughts' That Can Come With Motherhood [HuffPost]
Maternal mental health expert Karen Kleiman is tackling the stigma of postpartum depression and anxiety, one comic at a time. Kleiman has a background in psychology and social work and is the founder of The Postpartum Stress Center, an institution based in Rosemont, Pennsylvania, that’s provided support to pregnant and postpartum women for 30 years. Collaborating with illustrator Molly McIntyre , Kleiman has released comics inspired by submissions to the center’s #speakthesecret campaign ,...
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Coronavirus Threatens an Already Strained Maternal Health System (The New York Times)
By Eileen Guo, March 26, 2020, NYT “I didn’t feel like it was unfair of the hospital. I thought it was unfair of the universe.” — Smita Nadia Hussein, a mother of two, who gave birth on March 17 in Morristown, N.J. [This article is a partnership between The New York Times and The Fuller Project . In Her Words is available as a newsletter. Sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox .] On Wednesday, March 18, 28-year-old Latoyha Young and her mother, Thomasina Hayten, rushed to Sutter...
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Depression in pregnancy increases risk of mental health problems in children [ScienceDaily.com]
Depression in pregnancy increases the risk of behavioural and emotional problems in children, says a new review published in The Lancet Psychiatry. The authors of the review, which focused mainly on low and middle income countries, call for urgent interventions for mothers and children. Depression in pregnancy is thought to affect up to one in five women globally in the late stages of pregnancy and shortly after birth. It is characterised by low mood and feelings of hopelessness, and is...
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Doulas & Covid-19: A toolkit for doulas (DONA International)
Please the attached toolkit for more information. From the toolkit: Best practices when working with clients Given how new this virus is, we currently have very little data on how it might affect pregnant people and newborns. Guidelines from the CDC outline recommendations for how to support pregnant and laboring people with Coronavirus. (3) There is currently no evidence that the virus is spread from mother to baby in utero, or that it is transmitted in human milk. (4)
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Dr. Gabor Maté & Full-Potential Parenting, Even When It Is Hard
Note: Allison Morris had dozens of experts in her summit series through Full-Potential Parenting. I took notes only on those by Donna Jackson Nakazawa , Gabe Maté and Sebern Fisher (coming later this month). Though the audios are no longer available, for free, they can be purchased for $100. or less (depending on the year), here. Forgive me for sounding like an advertisement, I don't know Allison personally. I am a huge fan of all parent-led resources and wish I discovered this series...
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Effects of Preterm Birth
A baby born prematurely often spends that crucial time for attachment and development of neural pathways in the NICU
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Efforts to Reduce Black Maternal Mortality Complicated by COVID-19 [chcf.org]
By Xenia Shih Bion, California Health Care Foundation, April 20, 2020 Latoyha Young had a birth plan. She was going to have the baby in Sacramento with community doula Joy Dean by her side. Dean was funded by the county’s Black Child Legacy Campaign , which works to reduce the disproportional number of Black infant and child deaths in Sacramento. But in mid-March, when Young went into labor just as Governor Gavin Newsom ordered Californians to stay at home to avoid spreading the novel...
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Family First Scholarships for 21st Annual Families and Fathers Conference
21st Annual Families and Fathers National Conference February 24-27, 2020 Hilton Los Angeles Airport 5711 West Century Boulevard Los Angeles, California 90045 I am honored to announce The Family First Scholarship supported by the Annie E. Casey Foundation as a Title Sponsor and State of California First 5 as a Co-Sponsor for the 21 st Annual Families and Fathers Conference, Next Level 2020! the terms "putting family first" and "it takes a village to raise a child" parallels with why we have...
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Good mothers are on the same wavelength as their babies... literally: Brain scans reveal toddlers learn better if parents 'sync up with them' by smiling and maintaining eye contact [Daily Mail]
Good mothers teach their babies best when they think along the same wavelength - literally. Scans have revealed that infants whose patterns of brain activity most closely resemble their mum's take on new information more quickly. Experts say that parents can encourage this 'syncing' - known as neural synchrony - through social cues including smiling and maintaining eye contact. This mirroring of brain wave patterns was a good predictor of how well babies' learn about their environment,...
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Helping New Parents Make Room for Uncertainty
A new program for parents and infants, thanks to generous support from Mill Town Capital , is coming to Pittsfield, Massachusetts. The Hello It’s Me Project shines a spotlight on these tender new relationships, investing resources around the birth of a baby with the long-term goal of building a healthy community from the bottom up. When world-renowned child development researcher Dr. Ed Tronick spoke in the spring of 2018 for an audience of a wide variety of practitioners in Berkshire County...
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Helping Women, Babies and Families with a Trauma Sensitive Approach
At the Association for Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Health (APPPAH), a celebration of support for the Mother-Baby Dyad and Trauma Healing is happening. All month, there have been lectures by esteemed experts in trauma sensitive and trauma healing approaches. From midwives who are trauma sensitive to baby bodyworkers, from family therapists who know how help you recognize trauma attachment to cultural competencies with marginal communities, you will find it in this free lecture...
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Helping women have a better birth and breastfeeding experience during COVID
We at Better Beginnings are actively working to help women have a better birth and breastfeeding experience. Our virtual doulas are available everyday to support women one-to-one through their cell phones. This service is free to the mother call 415-663-6852. We also have taken the Breastfeeding Cafes virtual and continue to see women one on one for serious problems on Mondays by appointment (this requires pre-screening for risk factors). Women need to know their rights during this pandemic...
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Re: How a famous hospital turned around its low rate of screening moms for depression [CenterForHealthJournalism.org]
I commend Cedars Sinai for the incredible work they are doing and we can all learn from successful models that screen, refer, diagnose and link to services. We need to learn from them and look closely at all the pieces they put in place to make it work because it can work! BUT.... One of my biggest concerns about proposed legislation which requires an unfunded mandate for screening is this...There has been and continues to be a HUGE shortage in system capacity to refer, diagnosis, treat and...
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Re: So how do you start to think and talk about ACEs and Maternal Mental Health?
I like demonstrating serve and return interaction. If the mom can get a sense of the joys of attaching with the baby that can be very useful. This is a reason I was against some of our policies like checking glucose in an asymptomatic baby LGA (you'd need to remove the baby from the mother- if I decide to cover our hospitals call esp OB, I've already started to put thogether a plan for ACEs screening and aces 101 edu. I did this before on my own in the pts I saw that were at risk and that...
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2020 Is the Year of The Mother
Mom Congress and Motherly Declare 2020 the Year of the Mother Have you heard, the year 2020 has been declared the Year of the Mother. Organizations and individuals from around the U.S. are invited to join the Year of the Mother movement. The Today Show, Kelly Rippa and others are already starting to talk about 2020 as the #yearofthemother. The official launch is 1/20/2020. Because we know that that a stable and supported mother can change everything... Learn more and get involved here: ...
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6 Warning Signs That It’s More Than The Baby Blues [Scary Mommy]
With the baby blues occurring in nearly 80% of postpartum mothers, it can be hard to tell whether or not they are a cause for worry. The term “baby blues” is used to describe the flood of feelings a mother experiences shortly after giving birth. Between the sudden change in hormone levels, the extreme lack of sleep, trauma of childbirth and everything else that happens in the first few weeks postpartum, it’s understandable for a new mother to feel overwhelmed. The trouble with the baby blues...
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A Brief Overview of Post-Partum Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (mathewsopenaccess.com)
Note: Parenting with ACEs can present us with extra challenges. Being pregnant, giving birth and breastfeeding can all be difficult for many of us. The stresses all parents experience can be compounded depending on our own emotional and physical well-being and the support we have (emotional, financial, family, community). In addition, we might have to consider thing such as going on, staying on or going off of drugs for some period of time during and following pregnancy. We don't talk a lot...
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A community-based approach to supporting substance exposed newborns and their families
This information brief highlights a community-based approach to supporting families and newborns affected by substance use. MA EfC developed this brief to address the profound intersection between the Massachusetts opioid crisis, Federal mandates for the development of Plans of Safe Care for substance exposed newborns, and, the MA EfC focus on increasing social connectedness as a means to reduce child maltreatment.
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A good New Year's Resolution: Moms need to remember themselves.
Love this table top conversation between Jada Pinkett Smith, her daughter and mother. Take home message... If you're a mom, don't forget who YOU are to yourself. You weren't always a mom. Your kids need to see this part of you so that they will remember to value themselves when they become parents. If you have a mom, remind her she's also a beautiful woman. If you're a partner, help her to find a safe, stress free opportunity to reinvest and rediscover herself. Moms have a...
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A mental health crisis ends in tragedy when police shoot a young mother wielding a gun [Monterey County NOW]
For weeks, the 20-year-old had been trying to climb out of an ever-deepening hole. On Feb. 8, she gave birth to her first child, a daughter she named Victoria Guadalupe, but the baby was placed in the care of the Monterey County Social Services Department because, her mother says, Rodriguez Mendoza was found to have drugs in her system and because she had no place to live. She created such a ruckus when the baby was taken from her that she was placed in the psychiatric ward at Natividad,...
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A Message from the President of the Illinois Chapter, American Academy of Pediatrics
Dear Illinois ACE Connection members, Children and families from all demographic and socioeconomic backgrounds in Illinois experience trauma, adversity, and chronic stress. Social determinants such as where we live, work, and play, can further exacerbate positive or negative physical, emotional, and behavioral health issues. The critical factor that determines if a child, family, and/or community can manage trauma, adversity, and chronic stress successfully is resilience : the process by...
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A mother seeking help for her mental health loses custody of her children, instead—and it’s so wrong (Motherly)
By Heather Marcoux, Oct 15, 2019, for Motherly We've come a long way when it comes to talking about maternal mental health. These days celebrities speak openly about their experiences with perinatal mood disorders and many regular mothers share their experiences on social media. In 2019 it's okay to say "this is hard and I need help," but what actually happens when we ask for help varies and, in some instances, is downright unacceptable. Recently an Alabama mom to a 2-year-old and a...
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AAP reports: Perinatal depression screening, referral needed [aappublications.org]
“I thought the blues were all part of being a new mom,” said the woman who was screened and referred for treatment at her pediatrician’s office after the birth of her second child. She told a news outlet in Raleigh, N.C., that she was grateful for the screening. “I’m able to be the mother that both my kids deserve,” she said. The story spotlighting postpartum depression (PPD) aired in February 2017, just after North Carolina Medicaid established payment for the new maternal depression...
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Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)…Why is Hugging Sooo Very Critical?
"The reality of my own “adverse childhood experiences” is just catching up with me at age 73. My guess is I’m not alone."
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Anger overlooked as feature of postnatal mood disorders [sciencedaily.com]
Women in the postpartum period should be screened for anger in addition to depression and anxiety, new research from the University of British Columbia suggests. Although anger has been recognized as an element of postpartum mood problems for some women, it has not been well studied and is not included in the widely used Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale screening tool. In a review of existing research, UBC nursing PhD student Christine Ou found anger to be a significant feature in...
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As Kentucky’s Only Black Woman in the Legislature, I Have a Plan to Address Racial Maternal Health Inequities (River City News)
March 30, 2020, River City News The following op-ed is written by State Rep. Attica Scott (D-Louisville) As the only Black woman member of Kentucky’s state legislature and single mother of two, I know the importance of representing all of my constituents and leaving no one behind. Far too often in Frankfort, bills are passed and signed into law that will actually harm children who look like mine, hurt moms like me who know what it’s like to live paycheck-to-paycheck or no check-to-no check,...
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Re: Charlize Theron said she’s “not ashamed” to talk about her mother killing her abusive father in self-defense
The interview on NPR is very revealing and powerful. It captures the impact of traumatic memories and also how the relationship with her mother was crucial in her healing.
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Re: Doulas & Covid-19: A toolkit for doulas (DONA International)
We at Better Beginnings are actively working to help women have a better birth and breastfeeding experience. Our virtual doulas are available everyday to support women one to one through their cell phones. This service is free to the mother. 415-663-6852. We also have taken the Breastfeeding Cafes virtual and continue to see women one on one for serious problems on Mondays by appointment (this requires pre-screening for risk factors). Women need to know their rights during this pandemic so...
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Re: Opioid exposed Newborns - are we missing the mark and forgetting about MOM?
Hello Anna Thanks for the posting and the IDEA of the The Mother-Infant dyad is really a interest of mine. Not so much about my own biological mothers chemical addictions , but more from the perspective her being a Untreated-incest survivor and the daughter of a raging alcoholic mother. My biological grandmother had her own demons that I am not yet aware of. However I would like to listen to learn from the many of you who can connect me with other heterosexual men who have had to overcome...
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Re: When you don't fall in love with your newborn [ABC Life]
Thanks for sharing this heart wrenching story and how common this is so that mothers can find some sense of hope, know how often it happens, and know it's not their fault. I would add a more specific view, however, which is that this mom is expressing what some refer to as a bonding disruption - a disconnection that happens in part because of one or more difficult, adverse events that happened during labor (all the medications, the brutal forceps, long labor, worry about his fetal distress...
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Re: New mothers need to know their mental health is not a luxury [TheAge.com]
Yes, Yes and Yes. Becoming a mother is a process not a one time accomplishment. Maybe it's more like yoga, where we are always practicing. We are relational beings and support for moms (and dads) mean they have more energy to create that most important first relationship.
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Re: The importance of maternal well-being in relation to child unintentional injury
Hello ELIZABETH I really appreciate the courage and the willingness of this group who are willing to deal with this tough topic of. MATERNAL MENTAL HEALTH OF THE MOTHER. Wow...my mother was a very broken woman whom my grandmother was a raging and violent alcoholic woman who was rough on my mother. Back in the late 1950's we did not have groups like this...thank God this group exist. My MOTHER WAS the youngest of 6 kids, she was the baby. SHE did the best she could, I can see that now. But it...
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Unbecoming an Armadillo: Recovering from Trauma with EMDR
Unbecoming an Armadillo By: Victoria F. Burns, PhD, LSW Victoriafrances49@gmail.com Instagram: @betesandbites “When you are traumatized, you are basically in a permanent defensive mode” — Gabor Mate I’m sitting across from Meg on her charcoal grey love seat. My forearms are resting on a velvety mustard-yellow throw cushion and I’m holding crescent shaped pulsers in each hand. Meg’s my psychologist; a rare gem who specializes in chronic illness and trauma. Every two weeks, we spend an hour...
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The Cinderella Phenomenon: When One Child Is the Target of Abuse
Photo credit Unsplash.com/🇸🇮 Janko Ferlič (The article below is an excerpt from my book, Crazy Was All I Ever Knew: The Impact of Maternal Mental Illness on Kid s. I have used a pseudonym to protect the privacy of family members.) As a child, I lived in dread that something would set my mother off and she’d fly into a violent rage, unleashing a torrent of physical abuse. There never was any reason for the abuse. There didn’t have to be. Something would invariably infuriate my mother. I...
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CBT-Based Group Intervention Improves Perinatal Depression and Maternal Sensitivity
By MGH Center for Women’s Mental Health, August 26, 2020. Previous research has shown that higher levels of depressive symptoms during pregnancy may be associated with lower levels of maternal-fetal attachment (MFA). Other studies have indicated that poor MFA is a significant predictor of worse outcomes in terms of mother-infant interactions and infant attachment security. A new study looks at an intervention designed to treat maternal depression and assesses the impact of this intervention...
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Accessibility of perinatal mental health services for women from Ethnic Minority groups (The Strategy Unit)
By Jake Parsons, September 2020, source BMC Medicine. Mental illness is common during pregnancy and first postnatal year (perinatal period), and up to 20% of women experience a wide range of mental health conditions. Barriers to accessing mental health care during pregnancy and the first postnatal year (perinatal period) seem to be greater for ethnic minority women. As a consequence of these barriers, mental illness during the peri-natal period frequently remains untreated. This can have a...
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Report on WIC Role in Reducing Maternal Mortality (California WIC Association)
CWA Flash Newsletter - October 13, 2020 (Blue text=hyperlinks) Report on WIC Role in Reducing Maternal Mortality The National WIC Association released a report titled " The Role of WIC in Reducing Maternal Mortality ." NWA’s Maternal Mortality Task Force created the report to consider ways in which maternal mortality is addressed and discussed with program participants throughout the WIC appointment, as well as explore opportunities for additional focus on the topic. The report highlights...
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New California preventive mental health coverage puts ACEs science front and center
A mother, frantic with worry, brought her newborn in for a checkup at the pediatric clinic at San Francisco General Hospital. But there wasn’t anything wrong with the baby. And over the next several months, no amount of reassurance could convince the mom that her child was eating, sleeping and growing just fine. If anything, the mother’s worry led to behavior that raised alarm bells for her health care providers. Dr. Kate Margolis “[The family] wasn’t returning calls from the provider, and...
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Maternal Mental Health
Like many of you, I’m a bit out of sorts and somewhat disoriented right now. Our collective mental health is deteriorating during Covid-19. Recent stats report an increase from 20-40% of adults struggling with mental illness since the advent of the pandemic. Maternal mental health is particularly at risk. Helping children with distance learning, navigating exposure to the news, trying to keep life a bit “normal”, keeping family members fed and supplied, juggling career and income loss, all...
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Low levels of choline in pregnant Black American women associated with higher levels of stress (Mirage News)
NOVEMBER 17, 2020 5:08 AM AEDT Women with lower levels of choline delivered prematurely by 2 weeks, increasing risk of later mental health problems for their offspring. Researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campu s have found that many pregnant Black Americans have low levels of choline, an essential nutrient that aids in prenatal brain development. Stress caused by institutional racism may play a role. The study, out now in Schizophrenia Bulletin , also found that these...
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Implementation of Hospital Practices Supportive of Breastfeeding in the Context of COVID-19 — United States, July 15–August 20, 2020
Summary What is already known about this topic? Evidence-based hospital practices supporting breastfeeding have sometimes conflicted with COVID-19 infection prevention and control measures. What is added by this report? During summer 2020, hospitals implemented a variety of practices intended to balance evidence-based maternity care with infection prevention and control. Because of the pandemic, 17.9% of hospitals reported that in-person lactation support had decreased, and 72.9% reported...
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8 Categories of Adversity That Shape Health: Adverse Babyhood Experiences (ABEs), ACEs, and More
When I assisted women and families during pregnancy, labor and birth as a family doctor, I often felt concern that the interventions commonly used, while potentially life saving, influenced outcomes in ways that could be negative. I've since learned about a vast body of evidence that helps identify risk and offers tools to help recognize potential risk and effects so we can improve prevention and treatment. "ABEs" are one of 7 categories of adversity I add to ACEs that I wish I'd known about.
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My ACEs Affected My Birth
High blood pressure. In your third trimester of pregnancy, you do not want to hear these three words, especially if you are planning to have a home birth. My blood pressure nearly caused me to have an induction for my first birth and transfer to a hospital birth for my second birth. I wish I had known of the ACEs test so I wouldn't have felt so lost and guilty. For my first birth I was clueless. I did not understand why this was happening to me because I ate a healthy diet, went to boxing...
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Attachment Trauma: The Unique Impact of ACEs in Infancy
"Attachment Trauma is the severe disruption or dysfunction of the infant-maternal bond. This can result from stress and dysfunction in the family, mental health problems in the mother, and/or extended separation from the mother. These are traumatic experiences regardless of when they occur during childhood. However, when they occur during the first 2 years of life they have a uniquely damaging impact, leading to Attachment Trauma." Originally posted at CPTSDFoundation.org: ...
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Understanding the Baby's Experience of Adversity and Resilience: A Panel Talk
In 1999, an adult in my private practice remembered their difficult birth in their body while receiving bodywork from me. It was an eye opening moment. I had just had my first baby and was a newly graduated Biodynamic craniosacral therapist. We are trained to ask about the birth process in our adult clients because of the compressive forces on the body particularly the cranium. My client told me that she felt her lifelong depression was associated with her near death at birth, and what...
