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By Anne Harding, Medscape, February 6, 2020 Spending time in the neonatal intensive-care unit (NICU) is associated with an increased risk of psychiatric disorders in childhood and adolescence, according to a new population-based study. "In childhood, the risks of separation anxiety, specific phobia, oppositional defiant disorder and ADHD (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder) were particularly pronounced while adolescents tended to struggle more with oppositional defiant disorder," Dr.

By Arlene Harris, The Irish Times, February 7, 2020 While it may be an innate and mainly joyful event, many pregnant women feel anxious at the thought of going through labour and can suffer emotional and physical distress during the delivery itself. And there is one group of women for whom there is an extra level of trauma associated with the arrival of their unborn child – those who have been victims of sexual assault. Hazel Larkin is a sexual abuse survivor and over the coming months will...

Please click HERE to read more about this California specific information. Provisional Postpartum Care Extension (PPCE) – SB 104 SB 104 (Chapter 67, Statues of 2019) authorized DHCS to implement the PPCE, which will extend Medi-Cal or Medi-Cal Access Program coverage for pregnant or postpartum individuals who provide confirmation from a provider indicating that the individual has been diagnosed with a maternal mental health condition during their pregnancy , postpartum period, or 90-day cure...

By Rhitu Chatterjee, NPR, January 28, 2020. Shortly after she gave birth to her son last May, Meghan Reddick, 36, began to struggle with depression. "The second I had a chance where I wasn't holding [my son], I would go to my room and cry," says Reddick, who lives with her son and husband. "And I probably couldn't count how many hours a day I cried." Reddick is among the many women who suffer from depression during pregnancy and after childbirth . "There's this kind of myth that women...

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...

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...

By UCSF Continuing Medical Education, December 12, 2019 This is the fourth annual conference here in the Bay Area focusing on maternal mental health and well-being, with speakers from throughout the area covering important topics that will improve the care our patients are receiving. We welcome anyone with a personal or professional interest in maternal mental health. Participants will: Review the state of the current opioid crisis in this country and learn about tools to help identity...

From the article: To our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the incidence and clinical correlates of ACEs in primary care patients who already have cardiometabolic disease or are at elevated risk based on conventional risk factors. Open Access LINK to article Background Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are associated with risk of poor adult health, including cardiometabolic diseases. Little is known about the correlates of ACEs for adults who have already developed...

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: ...

How can we build a sturdy foundation for children from the start? This updated white paper from the Iowa ACEs 360 Coalition examines the stress expecting mothers in Iowa are experiencing and prenatal strategies to create the best outcomes for the whole family.

By Bror M. Ranum, Lars Wichstrom, and Stale Pallesen, JAMA Network Open, December 27, 2019 Question: What is the long-term and bidirectional association between sleep duration and symptoms of psychiatric disorders in school-aged children? Findings: In this population-based cohort study of 799 Norwegian children participating in the Trondheim Early Secure Study, when all time-invariant confounders and baseline levels of study variables were accounted for, short sleep duration was...

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...