Maternity Care Of Women With Mental Health Issues

Maternal mental health (MMH) disorders occurs in one out of 10 women during pregnancy and within the first year after birth (Maternal Health, 2016). Current law in California states no requirement for perinatal or postpartum screening. AB 244 proposes to create a pilot program to increase the healthcare providers capacity and training to manage MMH conditions to serve pregnant and postpartum women up to one year after delivery (California Legislative Information, 2017). The purpose of this paper is to increase management of MMH disorders, support of bill AB 244 and Assemblymember Cristina Garcia’s opinion, how a bill becomes a law, and how nurses can impact current law.

I am a naturally creative person who enjoys implementing evidence based practice change at a strategic and operational level. I am very excited about the opportunity to be potentially involved with designing an E-learning package. Whilst working with other experts in this industry I have gained some knowledge in the process of elearning development. I think that routine antenatal and postnatal care present an excellent opportunity to screen the mental health of pregnant women and women with a new baby. To do this effectively however, requires working more collaboratively across different professions to meet the needs of our patients. Having the post of a specialist midwife in mental health could allow me to provide focused care to pregnant women with mental illness. This could include co-morbid substance & alcohol misuse problems. I envisage the role as working closely with a perinatal psychiatry team at W.M.U.H and as an important point of liaison between the other midwives, especially safeguarding and case loading midwives, obstetricians, health visitors, child and family social services, obstetricians in the hospital, and mental health services. A useful means to achieve partnership working would be for the S.M.M.H to attend the weekly midwifery team meeting. Here, all midwifery community and labour ward teams meet to discuss the caseload and update the antenatal progress notes. This provides a valuable opportunity for potential referrals

Mother’s mental health plays a key role on effective parenting and social engagement (Hartas, 2014, p. 18). Implementing a community assessment allows for observations, issues to be brought forward and interventions to take place (Stamler & Yiu, 2008, pg. 216). Public health nurses need to continually observe communities, reflect on observations and implement strategies to improve the health conditions within the allotted community. Specifically, in the Hillside-Quadra area there is a lack of support for new mothers. Providing a new mothers walking group will help vulnerable individuals with support, advice and coping strategies. The intent of this paper is to advocate for the well-being of new mothers by implementing a new mothers walking group in the Hillside-Quadra area.

In terms of public health and associated concern, in the recent years it has been observed that mental illness has major impact on pregnant women and postpartum period which has become a concern of public health lately. The aspect that associated with pregnancy of women and their mental health that has brought this topic in the forefront is the fact that mental health problems like depression and anxiety have the probability to impact women twice as compared to men. The severity of the situation seen from a global perspective, shows that depression is one of the major reasons of maternal mental illness during the childbearing age of women, which is approximately between the age group of 18 to 40 years. As a result of this to the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) it contributes approximately 7% of the entire GBD for women of all age group (Leham, 2015).

Midwives are ideally placed to offer support and advice to mothers faced by these challenges. Parent education, open discussions, early assessments and intervention can reduce the risk of onset, intensification and negative effect of mental health problems (Maternal Mental Health Alliance (MMHA), 2013). Midwives need to be able to recognise normal psychological adjustments to changes and be vigilant to deviations from the norm (NICE, 2014). Mental illness can have a negative impact on the life of the individual and their families, therefore its prevention and appropriate treatment requires a multidisciplinary collaborated working of health and

I was fascinated to understand how human being was growing inside me. However, I also know that this isn't the case for everyone. Some women have tough pregnancies and don't enjoy the ride. They are on countdown for baby to enter the world. Medical complications and body confidence can have a real effect on women through pregnancy, it does effect us all differently.

In today’s society some women are reluctant about starting a family. These women aren’t just looking at the financial obligations that accompany parenting but many are looking at the physical and emotional changes that some women endure during the postpartum period. There is reluctance among some women because one cannot predict if such changes will affect their life. Women of all ages, economic statuses, and ethnic backgrounds are at risk. This is due to the hormonal shift that women face during and after childbirth. Such

Mental health nurses are specialist nurses that work with individuals, families and communities with mental needs. They are experts at assessing, diagnosing and treating these individuals. My aim in life is to become a mental health nurse, to contribute positively to the life of mentally ill people. In this essay, I am going to be exploring the roles of mental health nurses and my experience of mental illness in people.

Sandra was a 26 year old mother of four children who had been married for eight years. She had given birth to her fourth child two months ago, with the help of a midwife. Due to her husband’s recent pay cut, and already difficult financial situation, Sandra did not receive any antenatal or postnatal care. About a month after birth she felt normal. However, she soon began to exhibit unusual behavior including losing interest in her daily activities, spending most of the day alone without speaking to anyone, and ceasing to care for her

The primary message of this study is that women’s mental health improves each year, regardless of the circumstances or age or socio-economic class. More importantly, the state of a woman’s mental health has nothing to do with bearing children at a young age or later in life. These findings were obtained from a lengthy research done by the University of Queensland in tandem with Newcastle University spanning two decades. Researchers had the financial backing of the Australian Federal government through generous contributions of more than $20 million towards this effort. Professor Christina Lee is one of the core researchers among hundreds of others who conducted the survey comprising of a staggering sample size of 50,000 women.

Fathers experience changes during the perinatal period. They face stressful events related to perinatal period and experience changes in their daily life activities, which require adjustment. These changes may be associated with intense emotions as well as they could be physically highly demanding for fathers. The emotional and physical engagement facilitate the process of adjustment to pregnancy and childbirth. For that reason, perinatal period is considered a transitioning period coupled with high level of emotional and psychological states that may affect father’s well-being.

Throughout the course of a pregnancy, women are constantly told to provide a healthy and safe environment for their child to grow and develop within their womb. In the United States it is common knowledge to take prenatal vitamins, go see the doctor for checkups regularly, and to continue to eat healthy and work out while pregnant. However, not many people think that they themselves can provide a harmful environment for their fetus by experiencing certain emotions or stress. Anxiety and depression are both seen at high rates in pregnant women during the pregnancy as well as postpartum (Paul, Downs, Schaefer, Beiler, Weisman, 2013). It is possible that the mothers’ emotional state during pregnancy can cause negative health outcomes after

During pregnancy, a woman will undergo many visible and mental changes. As previously stated, the changes

The mental status of the mother while she is pregnant and while she is postpartum is very important for the welfare of both child and the mother. In this chapter we tend to discuss different psychiatric problems that mothers encounter during pregnancy and after delivery of the child. In the second part we tend to list various psychotropic medications that can lead to fetal harm.

It has been reported that the number of people with mental disorder is increasing in our communities at an alarming rate. Environmental and social changes are among the most mentioned causes of the accelerating rate of mental illness in society (Häfner, 1985). Despite the prevalence, about one fifth of the adult population will battle with mental illness every year ("Facts and figures about mental illness," 2014) and the acknowledgement of authorities mental illness is still given less attention then is needed to treat the problem successfully. Health bodies need to be putting more resources into this area as