By Sarah Johanek, MPH

2022 was an important year for both federal mental health and maternal health policy. 2020 Mom led and supported critical pieces of legislation, engaged with key federal agencies, including the White House and CDC, and continued to serve as a top subject matter expert in not only maternal mental health policy, but also mental health parity and peer support.

The following details our work to advance federal policies to improve maternal mental health.

Legislation:

TRIUMPH for New Moms Act:

In 2021, 2020 Mom led the development and introduction of the Taskforce Recommending Improvements for Unaddressed Mental Perinatal & Postpartum Health (TRIUMPH) for New Moms Act (H.R. 4217/S. 2779). The TRIUMPH for New Moms Act would create a federal interdepartmental task force that would review existing programs for addressing MMHDs; eliminate any duplicative federal programs; identify best practices for addressing MMHDs; and ultimately develop a national strategy and offer recommendations to governors on how to implement that strategy to close gaps in maternal mental healthcare.

On May 24th, 2022, after significant advocacy efforts from the 2020 Mom policy team, individuals in our network, and non-profit partners, TRIUMPH was included in H.R. 7666, the Restoring Hope for Mental Health and Well-Being Act, a comprehensive mental health package.

On June 22, 2022, the House passed TRIUMPH for New Moms Act as part of H.R. 7666, the comprehensive mental health package. 2020 Mom is currently advocating for the inclusion of H.R. 7666 in Congress’ Omnibus funding bill being drafted by the Senate. We have made it this far by:

Inviting partner organizations to sign on to letters urging House and Senate leadership to quickly consider the TRIUMPH for New Moms Act. The letters can be accessed here:
We also disseminated two action alerts to our network, resulting in 134 individuals in the 2020 Mom network contacting their Member of Congress and/or Senator to urge their support of the TRIUMPH Act.

Moms Matter Act:

2020 Mom has supported the Shades of Blue Project in advancing the Moms Matter Act (H.R. 909/S. 484), led by Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE), John Katko (R-NY), and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY). This bill would create grant programs within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to bolster and diversify the maternal mental health and substance use workforce. Both of these grant programs would have a particular focus on racial and ethnic minority groups.

Other Legislation:

In the past year, 2020 Mom has supported 38 federal bills that directly or indirectly impact maternal mental health. Some of these bills include:

Federal Policy Letters

Letters to lawmakers and federal agencies are a crucial part of policy development.

In the past year, 2020 Mom developed nine letters to share our recommendations and policy priorities. We also signed onto 38 letters developed by other non profit partners.

Letters 2020 Mom Developed and Submitted:

Blog Posts Updating the Field

To ensure that the field had access to the work happening at a federal level, 2020 Mom published the following policy blogs.

We are honored to collect insights and form policy pathways for the maternal mental health field. To help support our ongoing efforts to change the maternal mental health care system, please consider donating here. Together, we truly are making a difference.