Attendees at the virtual Perinatal Mental Health Conference 2021 were energized by the topics shared and took to the chatbox, sharing articles, books, and more. The Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies teams took those recommendations and created this list for you to save and share for your own personal and professional development. These links are organized alphabetically by type of source.

Books

• Quiet: The Power of Introverts In a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain
• Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome by Dr. Joy DeGruy
• The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love by bell hooks
• Happy Not Perfect by Poppy Jamie
• Call of the Wild: How We Heal Trauma, Awaken Our Own Power, and Use it for Good by Kimberly Ann Johnson
• Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May
• The Mind-Gut Connection by Emeran Mayer, MD
• My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies by Resmaa Menakem
• To Have and to Hold: Motherhood, Marriage, and the Modern Dilemma by Molly Millwood
• Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle by Emily Nagoski, PhD, and Amelia Nagoski
• Come As You Are: The Surprising New Science that Will Transform Your Sex Life by Emily Nagoski, PhD
• Self-Compassion by Kristin Neff, PhD
• Expecting Better and Cribsheet by Emily Oster
• The Body is Not an Apology by Sonya Renee Taylor
• Quit Like a Woman: The Radical Choice to Not Drink in a Culture Obsessed by Alcohol by Holly Whitaker

Journal Articles

The following articles present alternative theories applicable within perinatal psychology that deliberately consider the experience of those receiving care, shared in Anna King’s presentation “Decolonization of the Mental Healthcare System.”

• “Optimal Theory’s Contribution to Understanding and Surmounting Global Challenges to Humanity” by Linda James Myers, PhD, Michelle Anderson, and Tania Lodge (institutional access or content purchase required)
• “Culturecology, Women, and African-Centered HIV Prevention” by Wade W. Nobles, Lawford L. Goddard, and Dorie J. Gilbert  (institutional access or content purchase required)
• “Racial Inequality in Psychological Research: Trends of the Past and Recommendations for the Future” by Steven O. Roberts, Carmelle Bareket-Shavit, Forrest A. Dollins, Peter D. Goldie, and Elizabeth Mortenson
• “Cultural Humility Versus Cultural Competency: A Critical Distinction in Defining Physician Training Outcomes in Multicultural Education” by Melanie Tervalon, MD, and Jann Murray-García, MD

The group of articles below was shared after Dr. Linda Mayes and Dr. Helena Rutherford’s presentation about the “Neurodevelopment of Parenthood.”

• “Parenting and Addictions: Current Insights from Human Neuroscience” by Helena J.V. Rutherford, Sohye Kim, Sarah W. Yip, Marc N. Potenza, Linda C. Mayes, and Lane Strathearn (institutional access or content purchase required)
• “Mothers’ unresolved trauma blunts amygdala response to infant distress” by Sohye Kim, Peter Fonagy, Jon Allen, and Lane Strathearn (institutional access or content purchase required)
• “Breastfeeding, brain activation to own infant cry, and maternal sensitivity” by Pilyoung Kim, Ruth Feldman, Linda C. Mayes, Virginia Eicher, Nancy Thompson, James F. Leckman, and James E. Swain (institutional access or content purchase required)

This selection of articles provides information about the use of nutraceuticals in pregnancy.

• “Safety classification of herbal medicines used among pregnant women in Asian countries: a systematic review” by Mansoor Ahmed, Jung Hye Hwang, Soojeung Choi, and Dongwoon Han
• “Multiple-micronutrient supplementation for women during pregnancy” by Emily C. Keats, Batool A. Haider, Emily Tam, and Zulfiqar A. Bhutta

Our PMHC 2021 attendees shared even more than what you see in this list, so stay tuned for more blog posts of recommended resources!

April Charlo grew up on the Flathead Reservation in western Montana, a postcard-perfect landscape of glacial mountains and expansive valleys. When she got pregnant at 38, she thought she’d have a birth rife with traditional elements—nature, a teepee, and songs. Like so many things in life though, birth can’t be planned, and April’s early years of motherhood did not go as she expected either. 

“The second I got pregnant with Chief I was super anxious because I have a friend that lost a baby at 5 months and I didn’t know what I would do mental health-wise if I was to miscarry and have to tell everyone. These stigmas were really ingrained in me early on, that the world doesn’t need to know how I feel around a miscarriage and mental health. I didn’t want to tell anyone [I was pregnant] till I got past the 5-month mark because I didn’t want people to have to feel sorry for me if something went wrong,“ says April. 

When her son Chief was born, she didn’t have the experience she thought she would have. Since she was a teenager, April dreamed of having a baby of her own and was convinced she would be the best parent she could be. It turned out it wasn’t that simple.

“All my friends disappeared. I couldn’t go anywhere. I would put him in his car seat and he would scream. It was just such, such an anxious time. I would go into fight or flight, definitely a dysregulated, hyperarousal state where I would just shut down if I had to go to a store or anything. It was really intense,” says April.

She didn’t realize she was experiencing postpartum depression—a condition affecting up to 20 percent of women in the first weeks after giving birth that is classified as a serious mental health issue. 

“Postpartum depression was completely hidden in my community. At thirteen I went from playing with dolls to not being able to wait to have my own baby. In the [25] years between then and when I had Chief, I thought there was no way that was going to happen to me. I wanted this baby more than anything. More than anyone else who ever wanted their baby,” said April, choked with tears. 

Postpartum depression manifests uniquely in every woman, but common symptoms include depressed mood or mood swings, excessive crying, difficulty bonding with your baby, withdrawing from family and friends, change in appetite, changes in sleep, overwhelming fatigue, reduced interest and pleasure in activities you used to enjoy, intense irritability or anger, hopelessness, feelings of shame or guilt, diminished ability to think clearly, and thoughts of harming yourself or your baby. 

For most women in America, and Native American communities in particular , postpartum depression comes along with a whole lot of stigma. 

“It’s very hidden because it’s very embarrassing. In any culture, how this affects anyone of any color or status—it’s the same. It’s the same fear of being judged or ostracized. It’s the same fear of sharing the intrusive thoughts with anyone beyond yourself. What will that mean? Are they going to take my kids if I share these intrusive thoughts? Postpartum depression doesn’t discriminate,” says April. 

Unlike the “baby blues,” which typically clear up on their own after a few days, postpartum depression can last for anywhere from a few months to several years.

 “I didn’t even know that it was postpartum depression,” says April through tears. “I thought I had some unique condition. It never occurred to me that it was postpartum depression. My brain chemistry had me so locked in tunnel vision of just getting through the day. Maybe tomorrow I’ll kill myself. If I can’t make it through tomorrow, I’ll kill myself and my son. It still shakes me to my core.”

April attributes much of her community’s silent struggle with postpartum depression to the lack of traditional knowledge being handed down—a paradigm that has been pervasive since the colonization of the Americas when boarding schools forced Native children out of their homelands and disrupted their chain of cultural heritage. 

Despite past struggles, the dialogue around Native American prenatal and postpartum care is gaining traction. With more gatherings and conversations happening in public forums than ever before, Native women are finally finding their voices on the issue. 

“Once I told my story it was like story after story after story of ‘I had that.’ It tells me that our community, my peers (older and younger) do not feel safe sharing it. The dialogue has slowly started on social media which is great to see,” says April. 

Postpartum depression is common and while sharing your story can be hard, reaching out for help is important. Unintentional overdose and suicide are the top causes of death in mothers in the first year postpartum and are completely preventable with the proper help. 

Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies seeks to support all moms of any ethnicity in their journey to finding their way through postpartum mood disorders.

To learn more about April’s story of postpartum depression and ways that you can seek help if you find yourself experiencing symptoms, watch the video above.

KTVH.com story by Alexie Aguayo at https://www.ktvh.com/news/maternal-mental-health-task-force-funds-25-groups-to-support-mothers

May 20, 2021

A panel of lawmakers and state officials on Thursday held an “emergency” meeting to authorize a temporary expansion of federal benefits to help low-income women and their families purchase additional fruit and vegetables, just in time for a June deadline that had slipped beyond the notice of the Legislature as it works to spend a billion-plus dollars in COVID-19 aid from the U.S. government.

Under the expanded program, Montanans who receive Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children — or WIC — benefits will see an increase in their payments for produce up to $35 a month for a four-month period ending September 30. States that opted-in to the expanded benefit, a group that includes Montana, needed to take advantage of the opportunity by the beginning of the four-month term in June.

The monthly cash-value voucher for fruit and vegetable purchases is in normal times $9 per child and $11 for women who are pregnant, postpartum or breastfeeding. In other words, the boost, funded by the American Rescue Plan Act, can more than triple the fruit and vegetable voucher for some who qualify. Montana’s WIC participation hovers around 14,000 people; around 10,000 could see the expanded fruit-and-vegetable payments, the state Department of Public Health and Human Services said.

The annual income threshold for a family of four to receive WIC benefits is $48,470.

“It’s really important,” said Rep. Mary Caferro, D-Helena, who sits on the Health Advisory Commission that approved the payments Thursday. “I think of pregnant women, infants and children being able to put more fresh fruit and vegetables into their bellies, and that’s a really good thing for this summer.” 

The commission is one of four steering groups that were formed under House Bill 632, legislation implementing and authorizing payments under the American Rescue Plan Act.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture notified states of the ability to take advantage of the expanded funds in March. But the Legislature didn’t specifically authorize the benefit during the session, and the ARPA advisory commissions aren’t slated to meet regularly until June 3, by which point it would be too late to take advantage of the opportunity.

The Health Advisory Commission wasn’t scheduled to meet Thursday until the Montana Food Bank Network, the Montana Association of WIC Agencies and Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies notified lawmakers on the committee, the governor and DPHHS director Adam Meier that the state still had to authorize the benefits soon or else become the only state to opt-in to the expansion and not take advantage of it.

The Food Bank Network learned last week that local WIC clinics were holding off on issuing June benefits as they didn’t know how much of the fruit and vegetable payments to allocate, said Lorianne Burhop, the network’s policy director. Administering payments can be a time-intensive process as clinics distribute individual benefit packages to WIC-eligible families in the region, so the clinics needed guidance soon in order to begin sending out payments.

“Nearly one in six kids in this state live in a food insecure home,” Burhop said. “WIC reaches kids at their most critical points in development.”

That outreach effort began last week, meaning that the meeting to approve the funds came together in a handful of days.

“We never intended to hold up the process  — we wanted to make sure that pregnant women, children and infants get fresh vegetables and fruit,” Caferro said. “The way the human services ARPA funding works, there’s so many wonderful opportunities to strengthen families and so we missed this.” 

Editor’s note: This story was updated on May 24, 2021 to clarify that both lawmakers and administration officials serve on the Health Advisory Commission. 

Thousands of Montanans will see increased WIC benefits for produce