Closing Gaps in Maternal Mental Healthcare

The Policy Center for Maternal Mental Health is a national think tank, nonprofit organization advancing policies that support a health care system that routinely detects and treats maternal mental health disorders for every mother, every time.

Terms We Use

Below are the terms we use to describe our body of work along with explanations about why we use these terms.

Mothers/Moms

We use the term mother and mom to refer to those we ultimately seek to serve.
We ultimately serve those who are pregnant, actively birthing, in the postpartum period, or parenting young children.
We advocate for all mothers, whether pregnant, postpartum with a baby, or postpartum, and suffering from the loss of a baby.
We advocate for all mothers regardless of sexual identity.
We advocate for and work hard to bring the voices and needs of mothers facing racial and economic inequities to key stakeholders.

Maternal Mental Health

We use the term maternal mental health to refer to the “maternity” period, consistent with the maternal health phrasing and body of work.
We do not use the term perinatal mental health, as this term is well understood by clinicians and not others.
We also avoid the term perinatal mood and anxiety disorders for similar reasons and because mental health advocacy organizations have urged our field to avoid using the acronym of the term “PMADs” as a person with a mental health disorder should not be associated with the phrase “going/gone mad.”