Tagged With "maternal and child health"
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Trauma-Informed Care as a Universal Precaution: Beyond the Adverse Childhood Experiences Questionnaire [jamanetwork.com]
By Nicole Racine, Teresa Killam, and Sheri Madigan, JAMA Pediatrics, November 4, 2019 Experiences of childhood adversity are common, with more than 50% of adults reporting having experienced at least 1 adversity as children and more than 6% exposed to 4 or more adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). There is currently a controversial debate in the medical field as to whether the ACEs questionnaire, which asks about abuse, neglect, and household dysfunction before age 18 years, should be...
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Trauma Mama: Little Girl Riding Shotgun in My Psyche
“I love you,” I say to my daughter. “Of course you do,” she says, I’m awesome.” She was twelve. The mother in me smiled. The girl I was shook her head inside and wondered h ow would it have been to feel both loved and lovable while a child? I do not know. I will never know. It does not matter how wonderful my present. It does not matter who I will become. I can’t change the past. The past is a country I never want my daughter to travel near or in. I am an exile, from my past, my child self.
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Understanding the Effects of Child Maltreatment on Brain Development (ChildWelfare.gov)
In recent years, there has been a surge of research into early brain development. Neuroimaging technologies, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), provide increased insight about how the brain develops and how early experiences affect...
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'Understanding Trauma': Program Shows Doctors the Biases Indigenous Women Experience [cbc.ca]
By Daniela Germano, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, October 1, 2019 An online training program is aiming to educate health-care professionals about biases Indigenous women may experience as highlighted by allegations of recent coerced sterilizations. Dr. Naana Jumah, an obstetrician-gynecologist at the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre and assistant professor at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, said the idea for the program came in 2011 when she was doing her residency.
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UNDOING HARM: plastic surgeons tackle reconstruction for circumcised women [Sarasota Herald Tribune]
She called it her “deepest, darkest secret,” one she had never even shared with her husband. When Saffiatu Sillah was growing up in the West African nation of Sierra Leone, a ritual circumcision left her with scar tissue that caused pain with pain during sex and agony during childbirth. After her second child was born, Sillah, a pharmacist then living in Philadelphia, searched for medical help. To read the full article, written by Pam Belluck and Maddie McGarvey of the NYT, click click HERE
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Uninsured Native Americans Often Lack Needed Prenatal Care [ocregister.com]
By Yesenia Amaro and Deepa Bharath, Center for Health Journalism News Collaborative, October 4, 2019 For almost two years, Sylvia Valenzuela relied on the federal Indian Health Service system to get the primary care she needed. But when she had to see an OB-GYN for her prenatal care, she was on her own. What followed, she said, was a nightmare in which she struggled to obtain and keep Medi-Cal coverage, leaving her uninsured for a critical stretch of her pregnancy. Valenzuela says she would...
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Untreated perinatal paternal depression: Effects on offspring (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
Note: So many of us mistakingly believe hormone-related changes in pregnant women are the only cause of depression for new parents. Not so, as many fathers and adoptive parents know. This abstract suggests the following: Hence, facilitating access to vigorous and evidence based treatments is a public health opportunity for improving the quality of life of depressed parents and their children. Evidences emerging from this review actually suggest that the traditional gender-focused approach to...
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Untreated Postpartum Depression and Anxiety Costs California Billions, Report Concludes [CA Health Report]
Untreated mood and anxiety disorders associated with pregnancy are costing California billions of dollars in health care spending, social services expenses and productivity losses, according to a new report. The study , conducted by the research firm Mathematica with funding from three foundations including the California Health Care Foundation, estimates the cost of untreated perinatal mood and anxiety disorders (PMADs) in California at $2.4 billion for all births in 2017. This includes...
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Using Infant and Toddler Data to Support State Policymaking [NSCL Blog]
Brain development in the first years of life provides the foundation for all future learning and development, and yet the randomness of where a child is born or lives often determines whether they have access to the services they need to thrive in their earliest years. So how are infants and toddlers doing in your state? ZERO TO THREE and Child Trends has produced a first-of-its-kind publication to answer how the 12 million infants and toddlers are faring in the United States. The State of...
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Vibrant and Healthy Kids: Aligning Science, Practice, and Policy to Advance Health Equity [nationalacademies.org]
By National Academies of: Science, Engineering, and Medicine, July 25, 2019 Early experiences and life circumstances shape prenatal and early childhood development, with powerful impacts on the developing brain and body that shape health outcomes across the life course and can span generations. The preconception, prenatal, and early childhood periods are critical phases of development that help set the odds for lifelong health and well-being. All children deserve the opportunity to meet...
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Violence, Drugs, Mental Illness May Account for Half of Maternal Deaths [PsychCentral.com]
Intimate partner violence, substance use and mental illness may be as threatening to health and survival during pregnancy as medical issues, according to a new study. In the study, researchers from the Boston University Medical Center note that mortality rates for pregnant women are increasing in the U.S. Many are due to medical causes thought to be directly related to pregnancy, such as hemorrhage, thromboembolism and hypertensive disease. Although substance use, serious mental illness and...
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Vital Signs: Estimated Proportion of Adult Health Problems Attributable to Adverse Childhood Experiences and Implications for Prevention [cdc.gov]
By Melissa T. Merrick, Derek C. Ford, Katie A. Ports, et al., Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, November 5, 2019 Summary What is already known about this topic? Adverse childhood experiences are common and are associated with many poor health and life outcomes in adulthood. What is added by this report? Nearly 16% of adults in the study population reported four or more types of adverse childhood experiences, which were significantly associated with poorer health outcomes, health...
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'Warm' Hotlines Deliver Help Before Mental Health Crisis Heats Up [khn.org]
By Stephanie Stephens, Kaiser Health News, December 9, 2019 A lonely and anxious Rebecca Massie first called the Mental Health Association of San Francisco “warmline” during the 2015 winter holidays. “It was a wonderful call,” said Massie, now 38 and a mental health advocate. “I was laughing by the end, and I got in the holiday spirit.” Massie, a San Francisco resident, later used the line multiple times when she needed additional support, then began to volunteer there. [ Please click here...
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‘We are just destroying these kids’: The foster children growing up inside detention centers [Washington Post]
Photo credit and caption: Heard leaves the courtroom at the Boone County Courthouse in Madison. He hopes to train to be a tattoo artist. (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post) Dec. 30, 2019 Though he's never been convicted of a crime, Geard Mitchell spent part of his childhood in a juvenile detention center, at times sleeping on cement floors under harsh fluorescent lights left on through the night during lockdowns. He attended high school by clicking through online courses and had “no one to...
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We Need to Talk about PTSD in NICU Parents (themighty.com)
Given the nature of NICU, the pain of leaving your fragile baby each day, the feelings of emptiness and grief , the uncertainty and ups and downs, the lines, wires, monitors and alarms, not to mention the security buzzers at the entrance of the unit or the constant rigorous hand-washing, it came as no surprise to me that parents who have experienced premature birth are at greater risk of postnatal depression , anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) . You see, more than 40 percent...
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Webinar: Defining and Unpacking the Social Determinants of Health & Health Equity
Join the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) on November 29 as it hosts the first webinar in its Culture of Health Webinar Series. Date/Time : November 29, 2018, 4:00 – 5:00 pm EST The National Academies report Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity identified 9 social determinants of health and how these determinants impact our health and the health of our communities. The report also defined health equity as the state in which everyone has the opportunity to attain full health...
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Webinar: Key findings from the Listening to Mothers in California Survey
Webinar: Key findings from the Listening to Mothers in California Survey. For more information and to register, please see below. Webinar is Thursday, September 20 , from 12-1:00 PM In 2017, a team led by the National Partnership for Women & Families surveyed more than 2,500 women in California about their views and experiences with childbirth. The results, which will be released September 12, reveal what is and isn't working with maternity care in the Golden State. Join us Thursday,...
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WEBINAR - NPPC's Pilot Site Case Studies: Lessons Learned from ACEs Screening Implementation
The Center for Youth Wellness' National Pediatric Practice Community on ACES (NPPC) is a co-designed community committed to collaborative learning. To promote this learning, we have been working with six pilot sites over the last year, representing practices of various sizes and service delivery settings, to implement ACEs screening and intervention. On Monday, December 2nd at 1pm PT , we will be holding a webinar to discuss the findings of these pilot site case studies. Please register...
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What a Pediatrician Can Do for a Child Seeking Asylum-And What She Can't [newyorker.com]
By Rachel Pearson, The New Yorker, October 8, 2019 On a cool spring afternoon, in a clinic that serves refugee and immigrant families, I sit across from a teen-age girl. She is otherwise known as an unaccompanied alien child, or U.A.C. She left her home in Central America, crossed the southern border, and was detained for a week—in Texas, she thinks—in a facility where breakfast was a cold bean burrito, lunch was a cup of microwavable noodle soup, and dinner was a cold bean burrito. She says...
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How a famous hospital turned around its low rate of screening moms for depression [CenterForHealthJournalism.org]
With two maternal mental health bills on the California governor’s desk and one already signed , a Los Angeles hospital’s work to screen new mothers for depression could soon become a statewide model. Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles worked hard to bring up its low rate of screening postpartum women for depression. If signed, one of the new bills would require obstetric teams to do the same. The hospital’s screening success is largely due to the dogged persistence of clinical psychologist Eynav...
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How Does Trauma Affect a Person’s Interaction with Their Child? (www.nicabm.com) & Commentary
Has anyone seen this video posted on the National Institute for the Clinical Application of Behavioral Medicine (NICAMB) blog? "According to Dr. Ruth Lanius, a parent's experience of trauma can impact their ability to form a close, intimate relationship with their child." Ruth Buczynski, PhD Those of us Parenting with ACEs sure know that's the truth. Developmental trauma impacts our ability to form close and intimate relationships with ourselves, other adults and our children. The video was...
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How It Feels & How We Heal: Parenting with ACEs Chat Quotes (You Tube, Database, PDFs, Links)
Parenting with ACEs is sharing inspiration, information, and expertise from our chat series in 3 formats. Parenting with ACEs: How It Feels & How We Heal Quote Collection (pdf version below as well) Quotes Database (pdf version below as well) Links to Chat Transcripts and before and after-the-chat blog posts. Thanks to everyone who showed up, who shared, and who is doing the important work that is our mission (prevent ACEs, heal trauma, build resilience). We know that work happens...
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How to get more low-income moms screened for depression? CMS says, ‘Bill me!’ [CenterForHealthJournalism.com]
In recent years there’s been a surge in awareness of how common and debilitating maternal depression can be. As the research accumulates and media coverage keeps apace, the idea that depression and related disorders can wreak serious havoc on a mother and affect her baby’s development has given fresh urgency to efforts to get moms more help. Among policymakers, growing recognition of the problem has translated into new programs, with a number of states encouraging screenings and treatment.
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Improve Birth and Perinatal Outcomes with a Trauma Sensitive Approach
The Association for Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Health is excited to bring together 10 talented practitioners to explore the Trauma Informed Practices that help improve birth outcomes and support human development right from the very start. The Adverse Childhood Experiences Study (1998) launched the importance of trauma and trauma informed care in our health and educational systems. We suddenly had a measure of how early experiences in childhood could correlate with adult disease.
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Intergenerational Impacts of Family Violence - Mothers and Children in a Large Prospective Pregnancy Cohort Study [thelancet.com]
By D. Gartland, R. Giallo, H. Woolhouse, F. Mensah, and S.J. Brown, August 18, 2019 Violence and other adversities commonly co-occur, yet are usually investigated individually. The primary objectives of this paper are to investigate: (i) the relationship between maternal exposure to violence (including childhood abuse and intimate partner violence) and postpartum mental and physical health; and (ii) the extent to which exposure to violence and poor maternal mental and physical health are...
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Intimate Partner Violence Screening and Intervention: The American College of Preventive Medicine Position Statement (Abstract) [sciencedirect.com]
By Tanya M. Phares, Kevin Sherin, Suzanne Leonard Harrison, et al., American Journal of Preventive Medicine, December 2019 The purpose of this paper is to produce a position statement on intimate partner violence (IPV), a major sociomedical problem with recently updated evidence, systematic reviews, and U.S. Preventive Services Task Force guidelines. This position statement is a nonsystematic, rapid literature review on IPV incidence and prevalence, health consequences, diagnosis and...
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Introduce mental health checks for new mothers, ministers told Six-week checkup would help the 50% of UK mothers with mental health problems
New mothers should receive a mental health checkup six weeks after giving birth to help tackle possible postnatal depression and other problems related to having a baby, ministers have been told. A cross-party group of 60 MPs and peers have written to Steve Brine, the minister for public health and primary care, demanding that all mothers in England have an assessment of their emotional and mental health carried out by a GP, practice nurse or health visitor. They say that making such...
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Introducing myself, Morgan Vien & NEW Practicing Resilience Community
Hello! I’m a Community Manager for the Practicing Resilience for Self-Care & Healing community. This is an introduction to me and this new community. I graduated with a B.S. in Public Health from Santa Clara University June 2017. And I’m interested in preventing chronic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol, at the community and population level by addressing biological, psychological, and social factors that affect chronic disease outcomes. As the...
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Introducing NEW Becoming Trauma-Informed & Beyond Community
Earlier this year @Dawn Daum wrote to us when she was ready to share ACEs science with people in the organization she works in to make a case for moving towards more trauma-informed care for the benefit of the staff and those they serve. She was frustrated because almost all the training and resources she found were geared towards schools, clinical staff or to organizations working with children and families rather than ACE-impacted adults in the workplace and who are...
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INVITE: Mental Wellness Micro Healing Pop-up -- Mental Health Awareness Day - May 10
In recognition of Mental Health Awareness Day , please stop by our Trauma Transformed Healing Pop-up at the T2 Center in Oakland, CA. WHEN: Thursday, May 10th TIME: 12:00pm – 4:00pm WHERE: Trauma Transformed Center, 1035 22nd Avenue, #14, Oakland, CA. Please consider carpooling as parking is limited at times. WHAT: Healing and wellness activities DIY crafting "Spa" inspired snacks and drinks And more! Drop in and stay as long as you like between 12-4pm. RSVP: ...
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Is it PPD or PTSD? (www.parentingwithptsd.wordpress.com)
Essay written by Joyelle Brandt. I stood in front of a room of strangers with kind eyes, and announced: “I have been struggling with postpartum depression.” Somehow it was easier to admit this to strangers than to my husband and friends, yet there it was. Since early in my pregnancy with my second child, I had struggled with my mental health. But it would take me years to realize that what I had was not postpartum depression, but a particularly acute flair up of the undiagnosed post...
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“Landmark” Maternal Health Legislation Clears Major Hurdle [propublica.org]
Update, Dec. 13, 2018 at 8:15 p.m. ET: On Thursday evening, the Senate unanimously passed its version of the Preventing Maternal Deaths Act, sending it to the president to sign. Congress moved a big step closer on Tuesday toward addressing one of the most fundamental problems underlying the maternal mortality crisis in the United States: the shortage of reliable data about what kills American mothers. The House of Representatives unanimously approved H.R. 1318 , the Preventing Maternal...
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Learning To Care For My Newborn Was A Humbling Experience [npr.org]
Wen is an emergency physician and the health commissioner of Baltimore City. Two months ago, my husband and I welcomed our baby son, Eli, into the world. Hearing his first cry and getting to hold him were the happiest moments of our lives. When he was placed on my chest and I could see and touch him, I felt like I knew him already. The doctors told us he was healthy and well. I couldn't wait to start our lives together as a family. The night we arrived home, Eli wouldn't stop crying. Crying...
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Lesson learned integrating ACEs science into health clinics: Staff first, THEN patients
Nearly two years ago, a team of colleagues at LifeLong Medical Clinics jumped at the opportunity to integrate practices based on ACEs science to prevent and heal trauma in their patients when it joined a two-year learning collaborative known as the Resilient Beginnings Collaborative (RBC). A few months after training began, the staff realized they had to put on the brakes.
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Love as Destiny: A Former Foster Youth's Journey in Motherhood [chronicleofsocialchange.org]
By Katarina Sayally, The Chronicle of Social Change, October 25, 2019 If you haven’t heard enough stories about what breaking the intergenerational cycle of foster care looks like, I want to share one. This is our story, and it’s a good one. When I found out I was pregnant, the only fear I had was, “What if my baby ends up in foster care?” As a former foster youth who works in the field, I am constantly reminded of this possibility. One study found that mothers in foster care were twice as...
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Making the Good Stuff Louder: Trauma Dad, Bryon Hamel
Byron Hamel, (AKA Trauma Dad ), is a filmmaker , children's rights and men's wellness advocate. He's also a father with "ACEs through the roof," who survived child torture at the hands of a man now on death row for infanticide. Before the Father & ACEs chat started last week (see full chat transcript ), we discussed if and how to give a trigger warning. Hamel's experienced horrific trauma during childhood. He didn't want to traumatize those on the chat but wanted to be honest.
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Maternal and Child Health Journal Call for Papers: The ACE Study: Implications for MCH Policy and Practice
Findings of the ACE Study have had a swift and substantial impact on MCH policy, practice and research. This issue of the journal is intended to provide a forum to enhance knowledge of the Study and its implications across the field. Topics of interest include: The aims and findings of the ACE Study, The implications of the Study and use of Study findings to shape MCH practice in clinical, program and policy settings, The import of the Study in relation to life course theory and the social...
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Maternal Depression and Intimate Partner Violence: Impacts on Children [aappublications.org]
Among the many adverse childhood experiences, one must consider are the effects of maternal depression and of mothers being the victim of physical or sexual violence. What is the toll of these on children? Neamah et al. ( 10.1542/peds.2017-3457 ) decided to evaluate this by looking at the strength of such an association on the cognitive development as well as physical growth of over a thousand toddlers between 18 to 36 months living in Tanzania. These children underwent developmental testing...
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Maternal Mental Health Awareness
Please see the link below for the MATERNAL MENTAL HEALTH infographic for social media ACEs Intern/Volunteer, Elizabeth Najmabadi MPH, and myself developed to bring awareness to Perinatal Mental Health. Thank you to all who gave us support and feedback as well as the Perinatal Mental Health Partnership community partners for allowing me to post organizational logos on the flyer to show where maternal mental health services are available for mothers in Sonoma County. Please share with your...
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Maternal Mental Health (CA) 2019 Legislation [2020mom.org]
2020 Mom Sponsors .... We are a sponsor of the following MMH bills: AB 845: CA Medical Board: Optional Obstetric Provider Mental Health Training – View fact sheet AB 1676: Telepsychiatry Consultation for Obstetricians, PCPs and Pediatricians – View fact sheet We support the following MMH bill: AB 577: Extends MediCal coverage to 12 Months for Moms Diagnosed with an MMH Disorder We support the following Mental Health bills: SB 66: FQHCs- Payment for Mental Health Services when Medical...
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May is Maternal Mental Health Awareness Month!
How are you helping to raise awareness? Are you participating in a social media campaign? Attending an event? If you're a clinician, are you doing anything special within your practice? Please share with us what you are doing in the comments section
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May is Maternal Mental Health Awareness Month [CDPH MCAH]
There is #NoShame in dealing with maternal depression. Asking for help is a sign of #strength. Want to learn more? Visit our resource page to watch videos, download stress relief coloring sheets and find help for women and their families. www.cdph.ca.gov/MaternalMentalHealth #MaternalMentalHealth #maternalmentalhealthCA To learn more click HERE
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Medicaid can vastly improve maternal health, study [Modern Healthcare]
Expanded access to Medicaid was associated with 1.6 f ewer maternal deaths per 100,000 women compared with states that didn't expand the program, according to a new study. The i nfant death rate also fell more dramatically in Medicaid expansion states—by more than 50% from 2010 to 2016. Those findings were in a report released Wednesday by the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families. Researchers found that expansion states saw greater drops in the uninsured rate among women...
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Mental Health Care Could Get Easier for New Moms Under New California Rules (Capital Public Radio)
Marcio Jose Sanchez / AP Photo
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Mom's Mental Health and the ACEs she brings...the past matters.
May is Maternal Mental Health Awareness Month and this Sunday is Mother's Day. The day is somewhat bittersweet when I think about it...shouldn't every day be Mothers' Day, just minus the fanfare? How can we promote better mental health for moms during...
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Mommy Mentors Help Fight The Stigma Of Postpartum Mood Disorder (npr.org)
Becoming a mother is often portrayed as a magical and glorious life event. But many women don't feel joyful after giving birth. In fact, according to the American Psychological Association , almost 15 percent of moms suffer from a postpartum mood disorder like anxiety or depression, making maternal mental health concerns the most common complication of childbirth in the U.S. And even though these mental illnesses affect millions of women each year, new research shows 20 percent of mothers...
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“Momnibus” Bill Package Targets Black Maternal Health Disparities (Patient Engagment)
By Sarah Heath, March 12, 2020, Patient Engagement A package of legislative proposals aims to prop social determinants of health funding to target black maternal health disparities. The package of nine bills, titled the Black Maternal Health Momnibus Act of 2020 , is sponsored by Representatives Lauren Underwood and Alma Adams, as well as Senator Kamala Harris. The legislation builds on existing laws focusing on black maternal health disparities specifically by supplanting efforts to address...
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More Clinicians Need to Address Postpartum Depression and other Postpartum or Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders
“It’s okay to tell me that you’re not okay.” Postpartum depression (PPD) and postpartum or perinatal mood and anxiety disorders (PMADs) are the most common medical concerns for women after childbirth. Yet few medical and mental health professionals really know how prevalent and serious PPD and PMADs are. There is a great need for better screening to identify women struggling with postpartum disorders. Likewise, more therapists and mental health providers need to know about treatment...
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Mothers’ Adverse Childhood Experiences and Their Young Children’s Development [ajpmonline.org]
Introduction This study examined how mothers’ Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) relate to their children’s developmental risk and assessed how the association is mediated through mothers’ depressive symptoms and fair/poor health. Methods Mothers of children aged between 4 months and 4 years were recruited from the emergency department of a children’s hospital between March 2012 and June 2015 and interviewed about ACEs, mothers’ depressive symptoms and health status, and children’s...
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My son was hospitalized and now he has PTSD
“Grant, do you remember when you were in the hospital?” “Yes… they came to take the blood and I turned into a werewolf.” Original Post It happened quickly. A year ago my three year old had a collarbone fracture, it became infected and within 24 hours the situation was emergent. A week long hospital stay, one month with a PICC line and two months on oral antibiotics. Finally, the labs finally came back normal. The X-Ray was clean. Gillette Children’s Hospital closed our case. But the healing...