Educating New Mothers

EDUCATING NEW MOTHERS

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I rise today to recognize the importance of educating new mothers about postpartum depression. The bill I am introducing today with Senator MENENDEZ will provide screening and education for women who have given birth and will promote research into the causes, diagnoses and treatments for postpartum depression.

The Commonwealth Fund released a study last month that finds post-Ðpartum depression inhibits a mother's ability to safely and effectively care for her children after pregnancy. Mothers who are affected by post-Ðpartum depression are less likely to provide essential developmental support for the child through playing, talking, showing picture books, and following daily routines.

For many mothers, the depression worsens if it isn't diagnosed, which can lead to substance abuse, loss of employment, divorce, further social alienation, self-destructive behavior, and even suicide.

A few years ago in Chicago, within a 4-week period, several new mothers who were affected by postpartum depression took their own lives.

Melanie Stokes jumped from a 12-story Chicago hotel, taking her life only a few months after her daughter was born, The day before her daughter's first birthday, Amy Garvey's body was found floating in Lake Michigan. Jennifer Mudd Houghtaling, from Wisconsin, jumped in front a subway train in Chicago less than 5 months after giving birth to her son, Five days after giving birth to quadruplets, Ariceli Erivas Sandoval drowned herself in Lake Michigan.

These are tragic, heart-wrenching stories. I wish I could say that is the end of the story, but the problem is far more common than that. Each year, far more than half of women giving birth suffer from postpartum mood changes. The more mild ``baby blues'' affect up to 80 percent of new mothers. Postpartum mood and anxiety disorders impair 10 to 20 percent of new mothers, and postpartum psychosis strikes 1 in 1,000 women after birth.

The Menendez-Durbin bill authorizes postpartum depression screening and information for mothers before they leave the birthing center. Through a State grant program, health care providers are given the tools they need to recognize signs of depression and to educate women and their families about the disorder and how to access help.

We also call on the National Institutes of Health to convene a series of national meetings on postpartum depression and psychosis and then to expand and intensify research around that consensus.

Our bill has been endorsed by the Illinois Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics; the Illinois Psychiatric Association; Postpartum Support International; the Association of Women's Health; Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses, AWHONN; the Family Mental Health Institute, Inc.; the National Mental Health Association and the New Jersey chapter, and the New Jersey Chapter of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, ACOG.

I urge my colleagues to join Senator MENENDEZ and me in supporting the MOTHERS Act, which will ensure that new mothers are educated about postpartum depression and that research will help us prevent and treat postpartum depression in new mothers.

http://thomas.loc.gov/