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Lindsay Mitchell at home with her daughter Sloan during her maternity leave.

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...

AVAIYA University is hosting a free online class, Healing From Childhood Trauma, July 29 - August 6, that features 18 physicians, therapists, psychologists & more who share life-changing strategies to heal from childhood trauma. Featured in the course are Dr. Dan Siegel on "Trauma & Mindfulness", Dr. Jamie Marich on "Healing the Wounds of Childhood Trauma", and Ann Kelley and Sue Marriott on "U nderstanding Unresolved Attachment to Heal From Loss & Trauma." I'm doing a session on...

May 14, 2019: Resolution Recognizes The Importance Of Diaper Banks And Providing Diapers To Families In Need Senate Resolution re Diapers RESOLUTION Expressing the gratitude of the Senate for the people who operate or support diaper banks and diaper distribution programs in their local communities. Whereas the lack of a sufficient clean diaper supply can adversely affect the physical, mental, and economic wellbeing of infants, toddlers, and their families; Whereas diapers are a material...

By Marina Pitofsky, July 16, 2019, The Hill Tennis champion Serena Williams and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban have both invested in Mahmee, a company working to end maternal mortality, which just ended a $3 million funding round. “I am incredibly excited to invest and partner with Mahmee , a company that personifies my firm’s investment philosophy,” Williams, who donated through her organization, Serena Ventures, said in a Monday statement from the company . “Given the bleak data...

By Eric Gay, June 4 2019, Associated Press M ore than 210,000 women spent Mother’s Day 2019 in America’s prisons and jails. Two-thirds of them are mothers of young children; an unknown number are pregnant. Many of them have substance use disorders with a significant history of trauma and mental health problems. Some have been incarcerated solely for the alleged crime of substance use during pregnancy, and many have lost custody of their children because there aren’t enough treatment centers...

By Katelyn Newman, US News & World Report, July 15, 2019. INCIDENTS OF CHILDREN entering America's foster system as a result of their parents' drug use have surged since 2000, new research shows, coinciding with the country's recent opioid crisis. Using case data from the federally mandated Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System, researchers from Cornell and Harvard universities found that 1,162,668 – or nearly 24% – of 4,972,911 entries of children into foster care...

By Natalie Stechyson, July 5, 2019 HUFFPOST Many moms are suffering alone. I’ll always remember the terrified looks on the faces of my colleagues as I screamed full-force at an empty bottle and writhed around in a puddle of spilled milk while sobbing. “Trust me,” I said while catching my breath after we finished filming the scene for “ Life After Birth ,” our video series on the brutal realities of new-mom life. “Moms will get it.” [ Please click here to read the full article. ]

The U.S. rate of depressive disorders recorded during delivery hospitalizations increased from 4.1 diagnoses per 1,000 hospitalizations in 2000 to 28. 7 in 2015. Rates significantly increased in 27 of the 28 states. ACOG Green Journal link to article :

ACOG’s Maternal Mental Health Expert Work Group (MMHEWG) is a multidisciplinary collaboration of specialists in women’s health, obstetrics, psychiatry, psychology, nursing, social work, and public health whose aim is to promote the integration of maternal mental health into the delivery of perinatal care. Through efforts focused on current clinicians as well as the next generation of providers, the MMHEWG will lead provider education and support resource identification, vetting, and...

By L. Malik Anderson, June 6, 2019, Madison 365 Six women sought out to serve their community as Promotores de Salud (Community Health Workers) but ended up founding Roots4Change / Raíces Para El Cambio, the first cooperative of its kind led by Latina and indigenous women. “All of them were interested in health. All of them were interested in making a difference in their lives first and the lives of their family and the lives in the community,” Mariela Quesada Centeno, the inaugural Centro...

By Tina McKinnor and Ashely Smith, June 13, 2019, LA Sentinel When you type “maternity leave” into Google images, White women dominate the search results. That is not a mistake. The algorithm is a reflection of who has been centered in policy conversations and benefited from paid family leave policies. We know personally: Black women in California are most in need of an inclusive paid family leave program, but least likely to have it. We come from different backgrounds. Tina worked for...