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The Health and Social Care Committee said the first 1,000 days were critical, but not enough was done. It warned cuts to children's centres, health visiting and services to support parents had left families vulnerable. Nearly a third of children are not "school ready" by the time they reach five, because they have not developed the necessary skills and behaviours. The cross-party group wants the government to pay for extra contact with health visitors beyond the age of two-and-a-half. The...

For the first time, a national health panel has recommended a way to prevent depression during and after pregnanc y. This condition, known as perinatal depression, affects up to one in seven women and is considered the most common complication of pregnancy. The panel, the United States Preventive Services Task Force, said two types of counseling can help keep symptoms at bay. Its recommendation means that under the Affordable Care Act, such counseling must be covered by insurance with no...

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...

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.

'Game-changing' study uses four factors to accurately predict severity, longevity of postpartum depression Date: January 16, 2019 Source:Northwestern University Summary:A new study was able to successfully predict -- with 72.8 percent accuracy -- if a new mother would experience worsening depressive symptoms over the first year after giving birth. The scientists predicted this depression trajectory using four maternal characteristics that put the mother at risk. Identifying these factors...

The next generation is less likely to wear predisposed shackles of trauma because as trauma-informed parents we are re-wiring the traumatically stressed DNA that was passed down to us.

It's no surprise to scientists that variety is the very essence of biology, not just the seasoning, but most previous studies of key brain cells have found little variability in a common cell process that involves how genetic information is read and acted on. The process, called epigenetics, involves chemical or structural "tweaks" to gene activity that don't affect the underlying genetic code itself, but do affect when and how a gene becomes available to be read for its protein-encoding...

The U.S. has some of the best perinatal care on earth, but kids die before the age of 1 here at a higher rate than the most of the developed world. A big part of the problem is that high-risk pregnant women and newborns aren't getting the right care during their time of need. That's a problem lawmakers across the country are increasingly trying to address. Indiana, for instance, recently passed a law establishing a system that rates hospitals on the complexity of neonatal and maternal care...

Abstract: In 2015, a national working group developed and published a conceptual framework for trauma-informed primary care (Machtinger, Cuca, Khanna, Dawson-Rose, & Kimberg, 2015). Since that publication, there has been increasing recognition that childhood and adult trauma underlie and perpetuate many physical and behavioral health conditions seen in health care settings and that addressing trauma could fundamentally improve the experience and efficacy of care for both patients and...

Association of Childhood Trauma Exposure With Adult Psychiatric Disorders and Functional Outcomes JAMA Open Prospective Study Delves Deeper Into Mental Health Effects of Childhood Trauma Psychiatry From Treatment to Healing: Inquiry and Response to Recent and Past Trauma in Adult Health Care Women's Health Issues Adverse Childhood Experiences and Psychological Distress in Juvenile Offenders: The Protective Influence of Resilience and Youth Assets Journal of Adolescent Health Adverse...

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,...

2019 Webinar Series Join us for a FREE webinar series deepening our understanding of specialized issues and populations in perinatal mental health! Designed for care providers who work with new families, join us as we learn about some of the complex issues impacting young families. The virtual trainings will take place quarterly on Fridays from 12-1pm (PST). The series is free to all but prior registration is required. Login information for each session will be provided upon registration.