By the 2020 Mom Policy Team

2020 Mom submitted the following letter on behalf of 50+ organizations to House and Senate Majority and Minority leaders on December 5, 2022. The letter urges Congressional Leadership to include the bipartisan House-passed TRIUMPH for New Moms Act, including the maternal mental health legislation in the end-of-year budget bill, referred to as the Omnibus.

You can urge your members of Congress to pass this critical legislation by taking two minutes now to send this automatic email here!

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Dear Leader Schumer, Speaker Pelosi, Leader McConnell, and Leader McCarthy,

We, the 54 leading national, state, and local maternal and infant health experts, first want to thank you for your leadership on the emergency funding for youth and families’ mental health passed in the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. While these emergency resources have started to address the nation’s mental health crisis, critical maternal mental health (MMH) program authorizations from the 21st Century CURES Act will soon expire and must be reauthorized by the end of the year. We know that America still faces an enduring mental health crisis, particularly for our mothers. We therefore strongly urge you to include the House-passed reauthorization package H.R. 7666, Restoring Hope for Mental Health and Well-Being Act, in the end-of-year package before these programs’ expiration.

The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a severe toll on the mental health of Americans, with mothers experiencing some of the steepest declines in mental health. Aggravated by the infant formula crisis, MMH conditions have surged, with pregnant and postpartum moms experiencing anxiety and depression at 3-4 times higher rates than pre-pandemic.¹ However, even before COVID, suicide and overdose combined were the leading cause of postpartum death.^2,3 MMH disorders continue to be the most common complications of pregnancy and childbirth, affecting 1 in 5 pregnant women and new mothers, or 800,000 American families each year.^4,5,6 However, only 25% of those impacted are ever identified and receive treatment.⁷

Untreated maternal mental health conditions affect all of us: parents, infants, families, and communities.^8,9,10,11 The House-passed Restoring Hope Package included two bipartisan, bicameral bills to address this national maternal mental health crisis: H.R.4217/S.2779 the TRIUMPH for New Moms Act and H.R.7073/S.3824 Into the Light for Maternal Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders Act. These provisions will help to fill the gaps in maternal mental health by providing more states with grants for MMH Psychiatric Access Lines, increasing capacity for mothers calling the National MMH Hotline, and improving federal coordination for MMH programs.

Federal Coordination for Maternal Mental Health Title I, Subtitle B (Sec. 113)
These provisions create a national maternal mental health (MMH) strategy and supply recommendations to state Governors to improve their MMH work, ensuring that federal agency collaboration is improved across research, prevention, early intervention, and treatment. They will also facilitate cross-departmental MMH work between the Departments of Health and Human Services, Defense, Veterans’ Affairs, and Housing and Urban Development, to address the complexities of MMH conditions among mothers of all backgrounds. The federal coordination language is based on the TRIUMPH for New Moms Act.

State Grants for Psychiatric Access Lines Title I, Subtitle B (Sec. 111)
These provisions will reauthorize and expand the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA) existing grant program for Screening and Treatment for Maternal Mental Health. The grants support states in establishing and operating perinatal psychiatric access lines which provide state based technical MMH expertise to maternal primary care providers, and to improve screening and treatment. We urge that the final provisions maintain the same non-federal match as the original authorization from the 21st Century Cures Act (P.L. 114-255) to ensure states of all resource levels can participate in this program.

National Maternal Mental Health Hotline Title I, Subtitle B (Sec. 112)
These provisions will enhance the national maternal mental health hotline, which HRSA launched on Mother’s Day 2022, by expanding its capacity to support mothers with maternal mental health and maternal substance use disorder. The 24/7/365 text and audio MMH hotline ensures that mothers in crisis have access to support in between doctor’s visits and in the middle of the night. Both the MMH hotline and Screening and Treatment grants provisions are based on the Into the Light for Maternal Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders Act.

Without movement forward, most of the programs in H.R.7666 will expire in December – therefore, it is imperative that Congressional leadership act swiftly to include the House package in the end-of-year omnibus. As maternal, infant, and mental health providers and advocates, we have seen the sharp rise in diagnoses, hospitalizations, overdoses, and suicides firsthand. We thank you again for your enduring work to help America’s families and urge you to continue your leadership by reauthorizing and expanding these critical maternal mental health provisions ahead of the holidays.

Sincerely,

2020 Mom

American Association of Birth Centers

American Association for Psychoanalysis in Clinical Social Work

Center for Law and Social Policy

Children Now

Every Mother Counts

Families USA

HealthyWomen

Lifeline for Families Center and Lifeline for Moms Program at UMass Chan Medical School

Beyond the Baby Blues

Cherished Mom

Cihuapactli Collective

Communion with the Community

Cummings Graduate Institute

Hand to Hold

Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies

Hope for HIE

International OCD Foundation

Jace’s Journey

Mammha

MANA, A National Latina Organization

Massachusetts Postpartum Depression Fund

Materna Medical

Maternal Mental Health NOW

Matrescence: 4th Trimester Planning & Support

Mental Health America of Ohio - POEM

Michigan Council for Maternal and Child Health

Mom Congress

March for Moms

MomsRising

National Association of Nurse Practitioners in Women’s Health

National Consumers League

Postpartum Support International

Maternal Mental Health Leadership Alliance

The Black Women's Health Imperative

Transcultural Nursing Society

Perinatal Support Washington

Postpartum Resource Center of New York

Postpartum Support Center

Private Practice/Co-chair Postpartum Support International AZ

PSI ARIZONA

PSI North Carolina

PUSH for Empowered Pregnancy

Rachel Schechter

RAISE Consulting

Return to Zero: HOPE

Seven Starling

The Black Women's Health Imperative

The Center for Great Expectations

The Colette Louise Tisdahl Foundation

NOLA Reproductive Psychiatry LLC

Urban Baby Beginnings

Wildflower Health

Zadie's Nurturing Den

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Basu A, Kim HH, Basaldua R, Choi KW, Charron L, Kelsall N, et al. (2021) A cross-national study of factors associated with women’s perinatal mental health and wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic. PLoS ONE 16(4): e0249780. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249780
Trost WL, et al. Preventing pregnancy-related mental health deaths: Insights from 14 US Maternal Mortality Review Committees, 2008-17. Health Affairs, 2021;40(10):1551-1559.
California Pregnancy-Related Maternal Mortality Review. CA-PMR Report: Pregnancy-Associated Suicide, 2002-2012. 2019.
American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. ACOG committee opinion no. 757: Screening for perinatal depression. Obstet Gynecol. 2018:132(5)e:208-12.
Fawcett EJ, et al. The prevalence of anxiety disorders during pregnancy and the postpartum period: A multivariate Bayesian meta-analysis. J Clin Psychiatry. 2019:80(4):18r12527.
Gavin NI, et al. Perinatal depression: A systematic review of prevalence and incidence. Obstet Gynecol. 2005:106(5):1071-83.
Byatt N, et al. Enhancing participation in depression care in outpatient perintal care settings: A systematic review. Obstet Gynecol. 2015:126(5):619-625.
Zhou J, et al. Treatment of substance use disorders among women of reproductive age by depression and anxiety disorder status, 2008-2014. Journal of Women’s Health, 2019; 28(8):1068-1076.
Field T. Postpartum depression effects on early interactions, parenting, and safety practices: A review. Infant Behavioral Health, 2010; 33(1):1-14.
Sriraman NK, et al. Postpartum depression: What do pediatricians need to know? Pediatrics in Review, 2017; 38(12): 541-551.
Cherry AS, et al. The contribution of maternal psychological functioning to infant length of stay in the neonatal intensive care unit. International Journal of Women’s Health, 2016; 8:233-242. 1.