By Joy Burkhard, MBA
Founder and Executive Director, 2020 Mom

According to a press release issued by the Shades of Blue Project, host of the official Black Maternal Mental Health Week (BMMHW) awareness campaign, “Cultural barriers and lack of representation in the mental health field continue to limit Black women from seeking help” for maternal mental health care.

In recognition of these disparities and others, as the maternal mental health and Black maternal health communities pushed out discussions, social media memes and messages to Black mothers about strength during #BMMHW2021, Congress took a stand, too, and introduced a resolution to officially recognize last week as Black Maternal Mental Health Awareness week.

Congresswoman Lisa Blunt Rochester, who represents Delaware, introduced the resolution (H.Res. 536), and 34 other Democratic leaders joined as co-sponsors to designating July 19-25, 2021 as “Black Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week.”

Read the full resolution here.

Though the resolution was introduced in July, not leaving enough time for the bill to be considered by the full House of Representatives, this is historical in that it was the first Congressional resolution to address maternal mental health in America.

We applaud so many members of Congress for showing their early commitment to maternal mental health, including co-sponsoring The Moms Matter Act which addresses these Black maternal mental health disparities.

You can check whether your member of congress is one of the 43 co-sponsors of the Moms Matter Act for Black maternal mental health, and encourage your member to sign on if not, with a couple clicks of a button here.