Tagged With "Hot Weather Prompts Early Births"
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Women Need Professional Emotional Support During High-Risk Pregnancies, Study Finds [sciencedaily.com]
By Rutgers University, Science Daily, December 16, 2019 The study appears in the journal Psychology of Women Quarterly. About 15 percent of pregnancies worldwide are high-risk, making premature delivery, low infant birth weight and other poor outcomes more likely. In the United States, 10 percent of pregnant women require hospitalization because they have hyperemesis gravidarum, pre-eclampsia, kidney infections, gestational diabetes or are at risk for imminent delivery, among other...
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New D'Achille center at West Penn wraps services around new moms struggling with depression [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]
A variety of services for women with pregnancy-related depression is now available in a new facility at West Penn Hospital, the dream of a McCandless man who lost his wife to the condition and those he inspired who want individualized care available to every woman. West Penn patient Tishla Jones of Lincoln Place said she found herself feeling overwhelmed and distancing herself from others, including her older children, after the birth of her fourth child, now 10 months. She was referred by...
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Association of Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children with Preterm Birth and Infant Mortality [jamanetwork.com]
By Samir Soneji and Hiram Beltran-Sanchez, JAMA Network, December 4, 2019 Key Points Question: Is receipt of Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children benefits during pregnancy associated with preterm birth and infant mortality among low-income expectant mothers in the United States? Findings: In this cohort study of 11 148 261 pregnant women with Medicaid coverage between 2011 and 2017, the proportion who also received Women, Infants, and Children benefits...
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BBC News: Third of mothers' experience mental health issues
More than a third of mothers have experienced mental health issues related to parenthood, according to an online survey of 1,800 British parents by the BBC Radio 5 live and YouGov. The study revealed that, in comparison, 17% of fathers had experienced similar issues. More than two-thirds of the affected mothers sought professional help - suffering from conditions such as acute stress, severe anxiety and postpartum depression. 'All mums feel like that' Lauren Doyle experienced post-traumatic...
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Beyond Mom: Postpartum depression can impact a partner’s well-being, too [WashingtonPost.com]
Like any expecting couple, Brett Pipitone and his wife, Laura, knew that having a child would upend their daily routine. But no research or planning prepared them for their biggest challenge: postpartum depression. “It was an incredibly stressful situation,” Brett said. After giving birth to their daughter in 2014, Laura found herself “wanting to disappear” and completely disengaged from her surroundings. She’d call Brett at work in tears, and he’d rush home to help. He wound up taking much...
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Beyond The Preventing Maternal Deaths Act: Implementation And Further Policy Change [Health Affairs]
By Katy B. Kozhimannil, Elaine Hernandez, Dara D. Mendez, Theresa Chapple-McGruder. Feb 4, 2019, Health Affairs Maternal mortality is a death that occurs during pregnancy or within one year postpartum from “a pregnancy complication, a chain of events initiated by pregnancy, or the aggravation of an unrelated condition by the physiologic effects of pregnancy.” In the United States, maternal mortality is a clinical, public health, and social crisis. Between 1990 and 2013, maternal mortality...
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Breastfeeding and COVID-19 Guidance Updated (California WIC Association)
The CDC guidelines titled " Interim Considerations for Infection Prevention and Control of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Inpatient Obstetric Healthcare Settings " have been updated to clarify considerations related to visitors and essential support persons to pregnant women who have known or suspected COVID-19 infection; prioritized testing of pregnant women with suspected COVID-19 at admission or who develop symptoms of COVID-19 during admission; testing of infants with suspected...
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CA announces robust perinatal depression prevention for Medi-Cal recipients
Melinda Coates experienced a tumultuous pregnancy. “I was really mentally upset literally from day one (of the pregnancy),” she says. (Melinda Coates is a pseudonym. To protect her and her children’s privacy and safety, we are not using her real name.) Coates had hoped to get counseling last October, when she was seven months pregnant. That’s when she enrolled in the state’s Medi-Cal program, shortly after she and her abusive husband moved to California, “but nobody was able to get me in...
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Call for Abstracts for NCHDV 2020 conference
The National Conference on Health and Domestic Violence (NCHDV) seeks submissions that highlight research reports, practice innovations, advocacy initiatives, educational advances, and/or community programs that address one or more aspects related to domestic/sexual violence, other forms of violence, and health. The Call for Abstracts (CFA) invites leaders working in the fields of health and domestic/sexual violence to present their work at the 2020 Conference. Submission Deadline: Monday,...
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Can Fathers Have Postpartum Depression? [nytimes.com]
In the days after his son was born, Rob Sandler found the thrill of becoming a new father replaced with dark feelings of dread and hopelessness. Those feelings, coupled with sleep deprivation and stress, culminated in a panic attack during his son’s bris. As a group of old friends was saying goodbye after the ceremony, “I had this feeling that they were leaving and I was stuck in this situation that would never get any better,” said Mr. Sandler, a marketing executive in Dallas. “I just felt...
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Child and Maternal Health in Rural Areas Lags the Nation, Highlighting Barriers to Access [PEW]
By Stacey Millett, February 25, 2020, for PEW Trusts Cross-sector solutions needed to address complex challenges One in five Americans lives in a rural area, including about 18 million women of reproductive age, but key indicators, including mortality figures, show that the health of mothers and children in these communities lags behind that of their urban peers and is worsening. Nationwide, child mortality rates have declined over the past decade, but recent research shows that improvement...
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Childbirth Injury Led A New Mom To Start A Parenting Podcast 'To Feel Less Alone'
Almost 10 years ago, journalist Hillary Frank was pregnant and planning to give birth without medication or surgery — but things didn't go according to her plan. Instead, Frank experienced a prolonged and difficult labor that left her with a traumatic injury — chronic pain from an episiotomy that didn't heal as expected, and had to be redone. For months she was unable to walk, sit or easily hold or nurse her newborn daughter, and didn't fully recover for three years. To make matters worse,...
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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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Consequences of Military Sexual Trauma for Perinatal Mental Health: How Do We Improve Care for Pregnant Veterans with a History of Sexual Trauma?
Sharing our recent editorial which includes a call for TIC in maternity care: "Nevertheless, there are ways in which VA may be able to augment the maternity care pregnant veterans receive to empower and facilitate more trauma-informed approaches to obstetric care. These include investing in programs to ensure peer support, possibly through use of mobile health technology; facilitating collaboration with maternity care providers through provision of handheld/electronic maternity records...
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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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Exploring State-Level Strategies to Improve Maternal Health and Birth Outcomes [nichq.org]
This initiative will develop four case studies on the successes and barriers of individual state efforts to address preterm births. This work is part of a larger initiative to gain insights and perspective on how maternal health and well-being can help support optimum child health outcomes. Who: The case studies will be developed in partnership with four states that participated with NICHQ on the Collaborative Improvement and Innovation Network to Reduce Infant Mortality (Infant Mortality...
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Facing Postpartum Depression: The Honesty, Courage and Support It Takes to Seek Help for PPD
“Nobody would believe what an effort it is to do what little I am able” – Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the Yellow Wallpaper, 1892 It is wonderful to see the birth of a child greeted with warm enthusiasm and support. We celebrate the joy of a growing family, and the excitement of a new life. Relatives and friends often provide gifts and extra help. But for some new moms, motherhood brings on many complex emotions besides the happy ones. While we may greet a new baby with happiness and delight –...
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Fathers affected by birthing process can get help on the NHS now [Daily Echo - UK]
CAMPAIGNING Bournemouth University academic Dr Andy Mayers is celebrating after learning that fathers who have experienced stress or mental health issues as a result of the birthing process are to be provided with mental health support through the NHS for the first time. Speaking after the NHS announcement Dr Andrew Mayers, Principal Academic in Psychology at Bournemouth University, said, “Until this announcement, fathers were not formally considered for needing support for ‘perinatal’...
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Grant goes toward improving maternal mental health in Florida [Tallahassee Democrat]
About 15 percent of all mothers in Florida report experiencing depression during pregnancy or after childbirth, but fewer than 20 percent of mothers seek or have access to professional help. Much of the problem lies in the lack of routine screening by prenatal care providers. A new grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration aims to improve maternal mental health outcomes by increasing screening rates and patient access to treatment and resources. Florida is one of seven...
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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 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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2020 Mom (California) survey: Supported Birth during COVID-19
Supported Birth during COVID-19 Are you pregnant/planning to deliver a baby in California in the coming weeks? Have you recently given birth in California? If you originally planned to deliver in a hospital, we would like to know if you have questioned that decision due to COVID-19? If so, have you tried to change your plan to deliver at home or at a birthing center? Have you subsequently experienced any challenges getting your insurance company to verify if your new/alternate birth plan is...
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“2020 Mom Project” promotes awareness of perinatal mood disorders [Scopeblog.com]
Having a baby is a huge life alteration – who wouldn’t be at least a bit anxious? The vast majority of women experience mood shifts surrounding pregnancy: Around 80 percent experience “baby blues,” and in up...
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2020 Sex and Perinatal Mental Health Conference
Sex & Perinatal Mental Health Conference on January 13th and 14th, 2020 at The California Endowment. This dynamic training will delve into areas such as postpartum sex, birth trauma, cultural attitudes about sex, gender and sexuality, gender affirming care, personal stories and more. We have an amazing lineup of speakers and wanted to introduce you to a few over the next couple of weeks. Two day training that will explore how sex and sexuality impact and interact with mental health...
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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 Lifeline' For Doctors Helps Them Treat Postpartum Depression (NPR)
By Ruth Chatterjee, January 15, 2020, for Morning Edition For 1 in 7 pregnant women and new moms, things can feel off. They can have trouble sleeping or feeling connected to their baby, feel weepy, have low energy. They could be clinically depressed, and depression during or after pregnancy is very treatable if it's diagnosed. But only a small percentage of those women get the treatment that they need. Massachusetts is trying to change that. NPR's Rhitu Chatterjee has this story about how...
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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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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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ACE-Aha Moments & Parenting: Meet Aprel Phelps Downey
Aprel Phelps Downey What was your ACEs Aha moment? When did you first hear about ACEs and what impact did/does it have on you? How do ACEs impact you as a parent? How is your parenting impacted by past trauma? What’s been most helpful to you as a parent parenting with ACEs? What’s been most challenging for you as a parent parenting with ACEs? What has parenting taught you? What have you learned? How do you manage complex family relationships? What inspires/encourages and helps you? I know...
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ACEs Science Champion Series: Dr. Angela Bymaster: This Faith-Based Physician Integrates ACEs Science with Healing Arts
Dr. Angela Bymaster, a family physician at Washington Elementary School in San Jose, CA, operates her clinic in a portable unit on the school property.
Because the unit faces students as they are dropped off by their families, she gets to “pick up the kids” before they are sent to the clinic, practicing “upstream medicine.”
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Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study: Beyond Screening in Pediatrics
The evidence is clear. When bad things happen to us as young children, we are at significantly increased risk for not only mental health problems, but also a wide range of physical health problems including asthma, heart disease, and even early death. These "bad things" all involve disruptions in caregiving relationships. A national movement directed at screening for ACEs in pediatric practices has emerged from this work. My suggestion that the implication of the Adverse Childhood...
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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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Association of Exposure to Civil Conflict With Maternal Resilience and Maternal and Child Health and Health System Performance in Afghanistan [jamanetwork.com]
By Nadia Akseer, Arjumand Rizvi, Zaid Bhatti, et al., JAMA Network Open, November 8, 2019 Key Points Question: Is conflict severity associated with the performance of health systems and population health outcomes in Afghanistan during the 2003 to 2018 reconstruction period? Findings: In this survey study of 64 815 women in Afghanistan, notable health and health system improvements were made despite increasing conflict after 2010. However, regions with greater conflict had lower gains in...
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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...
Comment
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: A community-based approach to supporting substance exposed newborns and their families
Hi Alex, Centering Pregnancy is the model you are referencing, and there is tremendous evidence of the benefits for families, and fiscally for healthcare organizations. HERE is an example. Centering empowers patients, strengthens patient-provider relationships, and builds communities through these three main components: health assessment, and interactive learning community building. Additionally, there is a Centering Pediatrics model that is similar. HERE is more information. This LINK...
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Re: Improve Birth and Perinatal Outcomes with a Trauma Sensitive Approach
Kate, Thank you so much for sharing this important information regarding the work and focus of APPPAH. Often the preconception period is under appreciated as a key time to support women of reproductive age. Imagine helping women prepare for the birth of her baby and equipped to bond, attach, and care for the baby. This makes so much sense when compared to waiting until women and families struggle enough to come to the attention of social services. A Nobel prize winning economist developed a...
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Re: Deeper than the Deepest Well
Kate has an important message for all of us and if you want to know more, Google Birth Psychology or the Association of Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Health (APPPAH). Building Resilience during the first 1000 days from conception is a major key to creating life-long health and prosperity.
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Re: I Thought My Kids Were Too Old for Me to Have Postpartum Depression. But I Couldn't Deny the Awful Reality (Time Magazine)
We love Kimmy Gibbler (and Andrea!). The headline in this Time Article is a great hook and a bit misleading in clinical terms. Andrea wasn't experiencing depression but anxiety, and also the postpartum period is clinically defined as one year post birth. We would call what Andrea went through severe maternal anxiety and want mothers (and providers for that matter) to know there is a range of maternal mental health disorders. We have heard from Andrea's publicist and Andrea may be joining the...