MARQUETTE, Mich. (WLUC) – Over 60 health care professionals from the U.P. and Wisconsin learned better ways to treat pregnant patients’ mental health on Tuesday.
Upper Peninsula Health Care Solutions (UPHCS) held its first Perinatal Mood Disorders Components of Care Conference at Northern Michigan University’s Northern Center.
The conference includes a two-day training course about effective care strategies for perinatal mood disorders. There will also be an advanced psychotherapy training session.
UPHCS Assistant Director Katrina Keough says most people focus on postpartum depression, but there’s a whole spectrum of perinatal mood disorders like OCD.
“We see that there are a lack of services in being able to kind of fill the niche for those perinatal mood and anxiety disorders,” Keough said. “Often times those go unrecognized.”
Perinatal psychiatric nurse practitioner Chris Raines is part of Postpartum Support International (PSI). The nonprofit raises awareness about emotional changes during pregnancy. She says suicide and overdoses are the leading causes of maternal deaths.
“We looked at this as a public health crisis and the need to really inform as many people who take care of families within the reproductive age,” Raines said.
A traveling PSI Memorial Quilt was also present at the conference. It memorializes lost babies and parents, and it’s a reminder of the journey to properly treat and advocate for people suffering from postpartum mood disorders.
Raines says the risk of having depression and anxiety increases when estrogen and progesterone levels drop after delivery. She says perinatal mood disorders are time-limited illnesses and can be treated.
“We don’t often think of motherhood as a time of mental health, but it’s very stressful,” Raines said. “Sleep deprivation and that transition, road transition, into parenthood.”
Keough wants to empower people to talk about how they’re feeling.
“It’s really common for individuals to say, oh, it’s baby blues, but to question whether it’s more or not is something that the individual can explain themselves,” Keough said.
She says health professionals are here for individuals who need help.
Find the UPHCS website here and its Facebook page here, or find more information about PSI and its resources here.
Copyright 2024 WLUC. All rights reserved.
