Resources for Hospitals
The Policy Center for Maternal Mental Health Whole Mom™ Hospital Best Practice Standards
Take a look at the Policy Center for Maternal Mental Health's Whole Mom Standards / Hospital Best Practices to learn how to start addressing maternal mental health.
Revised 3/2023 view updates.
Hospital Resources and Overview of Applicable CA Law
California Hospital Maternal Mental Health Legislation Resources
Training Staff
Hospitals that wish to train staff may wish to explore in person training options or on line options.
2020 Mom and PSI offer both a 2-hour complimentary Maternal Mental Health 101 training open to the public, and an 8 class certificate-based training course for clinicians.
2020 Mom-PSI Training
Case Study: The Role of Community Health Workers in addressing inequities
This white paper outlines best practices and solutions for health departments and health systems to engage community health workers to address equity gaps.
UK Resource: Perinatal Mental Health Workforce Competency Framework
This framework identifies the skills required and helps care teams to assess their training needs.
The tool allows professionals to access the competencies in the framework relevant to their role and inform them of which competencies they require in order to fulfill the responsibilities of their role.
Childbirth Education
Following are childbirth class resources which address maternal mental health for childbirth.
Maternal Mental Health and a Transition to Parenthood
Transition to Parenthood Curriculum
A training manual for clinicians and childbirth educators, with class outlines exploring the psychological and emotional journey of pregnancy and the postpartum period.
http://www.postpartumhealth.com/books.php
Support Groups
Hospital Based Screening and Support Group Treatment (St. Catherine of Sienna, NY)
A Mother-Infant Therapy Group Model for Postpartum Depression - By Roseanne Clark - Infant Mental Health Journal, 2008
Support Group Guide
From Australia's non-profit specializing in maternal mental health.
https://www.panda.org.au/awareness/support-group-guide
Protecting and Promoting Sleep
There are many things hospitals can do to help promote undisturbed or "protected" sleep, including physical changes to rooms and changing equipment settings to reduce noise, updating policies to reduce night/early morning wakings by staff, implementation of protected sleep time during the day, use of sound machines, providing ear plus and eye masks and more.
The following are resources which provide more information about such changes:
Huffington Post Article, Hospital Sounds Disturb Patient's Sleep
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/12/hospital-sounds-sleep-patients-disturb_n_1589834.html
Paper: In-patient sleep disturbance: the views of staff and patients.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7567514
Paper: The nurse's role in promoting a good night's sleep for patients.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7665774
Hospitals may also want to consider (though not a specific recommendation of the 2020 Mom Project), training staff to train new families how to soothe their babies to promote more sleep in both baby and mom during those critical early nights and beyond.
The Happiest Baby Sleep Promotion Staff Training Program
https://thehappiestbaby.org/program-overview/
Information at Discharge
Hospitals may want to consider providing information to moms and families about maternal mental health disorders at discharge, such as a flyer or palm card. Hospitals may also want to encourage nursing staff to review the material by adding to a checklist for example.
Hospitals may wish to create their own materials or provide a copy of the following palm card which the hospital logo can be added below. See more at Awareness Materials
General Information
Tool Kit Developed by the Pennsylvania Perinatal Partnership
Funded in part by the US Department of Health and Human Services
http://www.pennsylvaniaperinatal.org/app/webroot/files/PPP_ToolKit_31-32_ImplementAlgorithm(4).pdf
A New Beginning (Printed Book-English or Spanish) Your Personal Guide to Postpartum Care
New mothers will appreciate this personal guide to postpartum care. Ideal for discharge teaching, this guide to self care and baby care is an excellent resource for issues that commonly arise during this exciting, but often anxious, time. Filled with information about resuming everyday life, post-pregnancy body changes and healthy nutrition, new mothers will gain a better understanding of how to care for themselves.
https://www.customizedinc.com/products/a-new-beginning
Videos for Patient Viewing
Healthy Mom Happy Family DVD
Don't have time to discuss maternal mental health with patients? Show Postpartum Support International's 13 minute video over your broadcast system.
Optional:
Becoming a Father DVD
We urge you to consider showing this video (50 mins), "Becoming a Father."
Creating a Postpartum Plan
The "Check on Mom" resource helps expecting mothers plan for their postpartum, including putting supports in place and taking steps to protect and support their mental health.