My Brain and My Baby
Miracle Babies has always had a keen awareness of the importance of the bond of parents to their newborn child, particularly when a medical crisis such as a NICU admission shifts the ability of parents to be with their baby in the way everyone pictures postpartum. Miracle Babies continues to have success in reuniting families with their hospitalized infants through their transportation program, providing support to NICU moms through care packages and Miracle Hours.
Miracle Babies founder, Dr. Daneshmand, has been a firm believer in the importance of caring for the whole person with emphasis on mental health. When mental health is not addressed, this is a huge hamper to anyone’s ability to cope with daily life, let alone the increased crisis that may be occurring during pregnancy or postpartum.
Over the years, people have become more familiar with terms like postpartum depression. Yet, the term postpartum depression can lead you to believe that you only must look out for depression after you have a baby. Unfortunately, that leaves out how you can have anxiety, PTSD, OCD (and more) and those symptoms can start during pregnancy. Maternal mental health (MMH) is the umbrella term for all mental health conditions during the time of conception up until the first year postpartum. This is not to say mental health is not important before and after that time for a family, however, research indicates that women are more likely to experience mental health conditions related to having a child during that specific time period. In fact, it is estimated that 1 in 5 women will experience a MMH condition annually in the US, which is upwards of 800,000 women a year. During the pandemic, preliminary research showed that MMH conditions increased threefold. There is mounting evidence in fields of epigenetic research that indicates that maternal mental health both during pregnancy and postpartum can significantly affect the developmental trajectory of the child. Miracle Babies has always aimed to give the best possible start for each baby and family, and mental health can no longer be outside of the equation.
Miracle Babies is proud to be able to launch My Brain and My Baby, a maternal mental health initiative. Their aim is to shift maternal mental health to a basic need, so that it is screened for and addressed in the same way as food, shelter and water. MMH is the most common complication of pregnancy and childbirth, and deserves to have a much higher focus, as it is more common than gestational diabetes and preeclampsia combined. Miracle Babies will provide free individual and group therapy for any mother regardless of type of insurance. The program will be piloted with Scripps Perinatology to work on prevention with early detection and intervention. Miracle Babies tagline is “Together for a better beginning” which rings true for their maternal mental health initiative in that they want mothers and all caregivers to be together with their baby not just physically, but emotionally as well.
If you would like to learn more, please visit www.miraclebabies.org.
