What We’re Reading
By Joy Burkhard, MBA
Founder and Executive Director, 2020 Mom
Here are the articles and reports that I took note of in October. Most striking:
New research tying having a mental health disorder in pregnancy to higher hospital costs related to delivery
Diagnostic errors being a leading cause of preventable maternal death
Why the phrase, ‘pregnant women’ may make a come-back
A new national effort is underway to address Mental Health measurement
Hospitals that are acquired by larger systems are cutting maternity care a limiting mental health care
If any of these articles move you please share our insights and perspectives by leaving a comment below.
How Many New Depression, Anxiety Cases Popped Up In 2020
The pandemic's impact on mental health worldwide hit women and young people especially hard. The researchers were able to estimate that depression rose worldwide by 53.2 million cases, equating to an increase of 27.6% due to the pandemic. This spike brought the total global prevalence for major depressive disorder to 3,153 cases per 100,000 population.
Physicians Are Operating at a Loss: Electronic Health Records
As doctors across specialties adopt electronic health records (EHRs) and messaging portals, they have hoped that digitization will make their work more efficient. But exactly the opposite is true, as some clinicians spend up to two hours of uncompensated time each night catching up on notes and responding to patient messages. The health care system depends on doctors’ donated time, and that situation is increasingly contributing to burnout.
The American Medical Association Needs to Declare a National Mental Health Emergency
As the pandemic continues to disrupt life across the U.S., a staggering number of Americans are reaching out to their primary care doctors for help with sometimes overwhelming mental health struggles. Yet primary care doctors like us have nowhere to turn when it comes to finding mental health providers for them, and our patients often suffer without the specialty care they need. By declaring a national mental health emergency, the American Medical Association (AMA) would draw attention to an urgent problem exploding in the shadows of the pandemic.
Mental Health Disorders Linked to Higher Childbirth Costs
Pregnant patients with trauma and stress-related illnesses had the highest costs. Researchers found that women with mental health disorders during pregnancy incurred higher childbirth costs and a greater risk for severe illness during gestation. Pregnant women who had at least one mental health diagnosis spent an average of 9% more on their delivery hospitalizations than those without a mental health diagnosis ($5,473 vs $5,015).
The World ‘Has Found a Way to Do This’: The U.S. Lags on Paid Leave
The U.S. is one of six countries with no national paid leave. The Democrats have cut their plan to four weeks, which would still make it an outlier.
Behind the Story: Giving Birth While Covering Midwives
After photographing Aijalon Redd’s prenatal appointment in March, Allegra asked if she could check my baby. She laid me down and listened to the heartbeat and then to me. She asked what I was feeling, and I shared how my husband and I sometimes have differing views on child-rearing. She listened and offered her presence. I was treated like a human, not just a body — or just a photographer capturing her story.
New California Law Lets Survivors Sue for Pain and Suffering In Assault And Medical Mistreatment Cases
George Sweikhart was diagnosed with mesothelioma after 30 years of working for Southern California auto companies on brakes and other parts that can contain cancer-causing asbestos. The pandemic delayed a lawsuit he and his wife filed, and finally was about to go to trial when Sweikhart died at age 75. Under California law, his widow and family could sue his employer for financial losses, but not for the pain he suffered before his death. Now that law, a restriction imposed by only four other states, is about to change. If such a person dies, survivors now will be allowed to seek damages for all harm caused by injuries to the victim — including pain, suffering and disfigurement — as well as economic losses. Previously, damages were limited to economic loss.
Why I’ll Keep Saying ‘Pregnant Women’
Being inclusive is important, but it’s not everything. Who can get pregnant? It sounds like a trick question. For centuries, English speakers have talked about “pregnant women” without a second thought, but a vocal and growing movement wants to replace that phrase with the more inclusive term - pregnant people.
Pathways to Equitable and Antiracist Maternal Mental Health Care
Health Affairs Editor-in-Chief, Alan Weil, interviews Isabel Morgan, director of the Birth Equity Research Scholars Program at the National Birth Equity Collaborative, on the effects of structural racism on Black birthing people's mental health and how we can do better.
New Report: Midwifery Care
A high-touch, low-tech approach to maternity care
Due to the massive maternal health crisis, expanding the availability of midwifery care is a critical part of the solution to providing higher quality care and better birth outcomes. This report shares this model of care, reviews the supporting evidence, and discusses the great interest of birthing people in midwifery care; while including recommendations to increase access to midwifery care for federal, state, and territorial policymakers and the private sector decision-makers.
Behavioral Health Quality Framework: A Roadmap for Using Measurement to Promote Joint Accountability and Whole-Person Care
To guide the development of this framework, California Health Care Foundation (CHCF) commissioned the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) to evaluate the current behavioral health quality measurement landscape and better understand the needs and challenges of entities responsible for behavioral health care across the healthcare system.
Are Adverse Childhood Experiences Our Biggest Health Problem?
Considering the costs associated with not treating the hidden wounds of childhood, Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) might rightly be called the number one unaddressed public health problem in America.
In the U.K., Pregnant and Unvaccinated Women Account For One in Five Critically Ill COVID Patients
In recent months, unvaccinated pregnant women account for nearly 20 percent of the most critically ill coronavirus patients requiring lifesaving care in England.
AHRQ Issue Brief Outlines Diagnostic Error’s Impacts on Maternal Morbidity and Mortality
According to a new AHRQ Issue Brief, emerging evidence suggests that diagnostic error may play a role in severe maternal morbidity and maternal mortality. Maternal mortality continues to be a public health crisis, with 20 to 80 percent of deaths considered preventable.
Telepsychiatry a Resounding Success in 5-year Trial
The five-year study, in JAMA Psychiatry, found that telepsychiatry in rural, federally qualified health centers was a resounding success for patients who had screened positive for bipolar disorder and/or PTSD.
In Research First, Jolts From a Customized Brain Implant Provided Immediate Relief to a Severely Depressed Patient, Scientists Say
When Sarah, 36, and severely depressed, sat down in a lab with a head full of surgically implanted sensors, the last thing she expected was to spontaneously cackle. She hadn't laughed like that — a natural, unforced laugh — in five years. But something had happened: A slight electrical shock deep in her brain had interfered with the dark, anxious spirals her depression had sent her on since she was a child. Sarah laughed, and the whole room was taken aback, researchers recalled.
Racism a Strong Factor in Black Women’s High Rate of Premature Births, Study Finds
Dr. Paula Braveman, director of the Center on Social Disparities in Health at the University of California-San Francisco, says her latest research revealed an “astounding” level of evidence that racism is a decisive “upstream” cause of higher rates of preterm birth among Black women.
Medicaid has Been Good to My Body, But it Has Abandoned My Brain
I’m not alone. Americans, particularly if they’re low-income, elderly, young, and/or a minority, are both seeking and struggling to find mental health care in record numbers. In Illinois funding cuts and the pandemic have left 38%, or 4.9 million people, in “designated mental health shortage areas.” We deserve so much more. We deserve access to experimental medication when appropriate, stable access to therapy and processes that don’t consume whole days. We want to live. We want more than mere survival.
Breastfeeding Longer May Lower Postpartum Depression Risk
Breastfeeding is linked to a lower risk for postpartum depression -- the so-called "baby blues" -- and nursing for a longer time may further ease depression symptoms.
Rural Hospitals Cut Maternal, Surgical Care Services, Limit Mental Health Access After Acquisition, Study Finds
A new Health Affairs analysis suggests recently acquired rural hospitals were more likely than those that remained independent of shutting down their maternal, neonatal, and surgical care services. "Mergers might be a strategy to keep rural hospitals afloat in precarious financial times, but the trade-off may be a hospital that is less responsive to community needs," Rachel Mosher Henke, senior director at IBM Watson Health, said in a statement.
How Public Health Took Part in Its Own Downfall
The field’s future lies in reclaiming parts of its past that it willingly abandoned. A mixed group of physicians, scientists, industrialists, and social activists all saw themselves “as part of this giant social-reform effort that was going to transform the health of the nation,” said David Rosner, a public-health historian at Columbia University. They were united by a simple yet radical notion: that some people were more susceptible to disease because of social problems.