What Makes Covering Maternity Care Different?
The United States has a higher maternal mortality rate than any other developed country, but federal policy makers are considering reducing access to insurance coverage for pregnancy care. Last week, the US Senate released the Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017, following the passage of the American Health Care Act in the US House of Representatives. Both pieces of legislation would allow states to waive out of the requirement that insurance plans in the individual market cover maternity and newborn care, as part of efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
The ACA requires that all individual market...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - June 29, 2017 Category: Health Management Authors: Dania Palanker, Kevin Lucia and Dimitra Panteli Tags: Following the ACA Insurance and Coverage Population Health ACA repeal and replace Amerian Health Care Act Essential Health Benefits Health Reform maternity care pregnancy Source Type: blogs
This Intervention Helps Underserved Women Access Needed Postpartum Care
Pregnancy and childbirth can exacerbate many health risks, especially among underserved women or those who have a hard time getting health care. Diabetes, hypertension, and depression are all serious health conditions that occur frequently during pregnancy and childbirth, and are more common (during pregnancy and overall) among racial and ethnic minority women. Many women with these conditions have worsened health throughout their life course.
Yet pregnancy and the postpartum period also present an opportunity for providers to intervene and improve the health trajectories of these women by connecting them to health care, h...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - June 5, 2017 Category: Health Management Authors: Elizabeth A. Howell Tags: Health Equity Medicaid and CHIP Payment Policy Quality maternal depression Maternal Health postpartum care Primary Care Women's Health Source Type: blogs
3 Things to Know about Mother-Child Relationships
By Sarah Edwards, DO
Healthy moms = healthy children and families. Healthy moms are essential to building children’s healthy brains and helping everyone in the family grow well and love well. Maternal depression, anxiety and stress can affect how a mother interacts and develops a relationship with her baby. Babies need a safe and stable connection with a caregiver for social, emotional and cognitive development. If this attachment is not strong, it can have lasting effects on a child’s brain, and puts children at risk for behavior and emotional problems.
Family bonding is key to a healthy family. The good news is that...
Source: Life in a Medical Center - May 15, 2017 Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: UMMC Tags: Children's Health Health Tips Kids Source Type: blogs
Psychology Around the Net: May 6, 2017
Happy Saturday, Psych Central readers!
May is Mental Health Awareness Month (or, “Mental Health Month”), but of course you knew that, didn’t you?
Whether or not you did, Mental Health America (which started Mental Health Month way back in 1949) has provided a ton of information for individuals and organizations to help them promote mental health awareness this month. There’s even a handy dandy toolkit you can download.
Go check it out and get busy this month! But before you do, check out this week’s Psychology Around the Net which covers political correctness personalities, how Alzheimer̵...
Source: World of Psychology - May 6, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Alicia Sparks Tags: Alzheimer's Antidepressant Caregivers Children and Teens Depression Disorders Medications Personality Policy and Advocacy Psychiatry Psychology Psychology Around the Net Relationships Research Technology World Mental Health D Source Type: blogs
Maternal Mental Health Matters
MAY 3, 2017 IS WORLD MATERNAL MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS DAY
#maternalMHmatters
Today is World Maternal Mental Health Awareness Day, and we’re helping to bring attention to an important health issue and available treatment options.
Worldwide, as many as one in five women experience some type of perinatal mood and anxiety disorder (PMAD). PMADs include postpartum depression, postpartum anxiety, postpartum obsessive compulsive disorder and others.
“There is still this myth that pregnancy is blissful and if you don’t enjoy pregnancy and having your baby, there’s something wrong with you,” says Patricia Widra, MD, assis...
Source: Life in a Medical Center - May 3, 2017 Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: UMMC Tags: Women's Health anxiety disorder maternal mental health mood disorder patricia widra PMAD Source Type: blogs
A Natural Supplement to Prevent Postpartum Depression?
And it doesn’t involve taking prescription drugs!
If you’re stuck with the baby blues, science is here to help! Or if you’re planning to have another baby and worry that your postpartum depression will strike again, there’s good news on the way.
Yes, Men Suffer From Postpartum Depression Too (Trust Me, I Know)
Recently a study on postpartum depression and the “baby blues” in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States discovered that blueberries and certain amino acids, when combined, can help to prevent postpartum depression before it starts.
And now, resea...
Source: World of Psychology - May 1, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Psych Central Staff Tags: Alternative and Nutritional Supplements Depression Disorders Family Publishers Research Women's Issues YourTango Amino Acids Aria Gmitter Baby Blues birth blueberries Happiness Hormones L-tryptophan L-tyrosine Medicine Source Type: blogs
10 Famous People with Depression, Bipolar Disorder or Both
Whenever I hit a depression rut, where I feel disabled by the illness and therefore pathetic for being brought to my knees by a bunch of thoughts, it helps me to review celebrities — esteemed politicians, actors, musicians, comedians, astronauts, writers, and athletes — that I admire from both the past and present who have also wrestled the demons of depression and bipolar disorder. I feel less alone knowing that this infuriating condition doesn’t discriminate, and that I’m fighting alongside some of the world’s most talented and accomplished people.
Here are a few of the luminaries that have, ov...
Source: World of Psychology - April 20, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Therese J. Borchard Tags: Bipolar Celebrities Depression Inspiration & Hope Ashley Judd Bipolar Disorder Bipolar Ii Disorder Brooke Shields Depressive Episode famous Jared Padalecki Manic Episode Matt Lauer Mood Disorder Winston Churchill Wynonna Judd Source Type: blogs
A physician-mother on maternity leave learns how she can ’t ignore her job
The stretcher was wheeled into the operating room. I had been in this room on three prior occasions, under very different circumstances. But today, as I lay flat on the table, listening to the small talk around me, I tried to breathe against the weight of the baby and the pressure of the procedure. My husband will later tell me it happened so quickly, but for me, time stood still until I heard the crying. A reassuring sound. A healthy baby girl. After settling into the world, they brought her over for me to admire. My reaction was the same as with our first daughter; I vomited. So much for the glamor of child...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - March 23, 2017 Category: Journals (General) Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/amy-hughes" rel="tag" > Amy Hughes, MD < /a > Tags: Physician OB/GYN Source Type: blogs
Weight loss that works: A true story
Many people struggle with being overweight, or even obese. It’s a common topic at office visits. As a doctor, I know that excess weight is associated with potentially serious health conditions — high blood pressure, high blood sugar, high cholesterol — not to mention sleep apnea, fatty liver disease, and back and knee problems, among other things. Patients may also worry about their appearance.
Whether a patient is at risk for medical problems due to being overweight, or if it’s a personal health goal, then it’s my job to provide counseling.
In my experience, most patients consider weight loss drugs or surger...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - March 1, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Monique Tello, MD, MPH Tags: Diet and Weight Loss Exercise and Fitness Health Healthy Eating Source Type: blogs
Population Health Isn ’ t Working Out Quite the Way They Said It Would. What ’ s Going On?
By HILARY HATCH
I hate shots. Every year when flu season rolls around, I think, “what’s in it for me?” The answer is, “it isn’t for me. It’s for the herd.” I am young and healthy enough that I am unlikely to die of the flu but I have children, older people and vulnerable patients I care about it, so I get a flu shot every year.
This is true population health. I get a flu shot for the benefit of others. Population health has been extended to a much larger set of activities that have no communal benefit. One patient with diabetes doesn’t benefit from another getting a foot exam. (Mammograms, colonoscopies, ...
Source: The Health Care Blog - February 20, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: John Irvine Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
Postpartum depression: The worst kept secret
Having a baby is one of the happiest times in life, but it can also be one of the saddest.
For most new mothers, the first several days after having a baby is an emotional roller coaster ride. Thrilling moments of happiness and joy are abruptly interrupted by a plunge into moments of depressive symptoms including weeping, anxiety, anger, and sadness. These “baby blues” usually peak in the first two to five days after delivery, and in most women, go away as quickly as they came.
Except sometimes they don’t go away.
For some women, depressive symptoms continue well past those first two weeks or develop over the next s...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - February 8, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Andrea Chisholm, MD Tags: Anxiety and Depression Behavioral Health Family Planning and Pregnancy Parenting Screening Women's Health Source Type: blogs
What the 21st Century Cures Act means for behavioral health
The 21st Century Cures Act represents a significant set of initiatives aimed at improving the care of people with mental and substance use disorders. It builds on important innovations introduced in the Mental Health Parity and Addictions Equity Act and the Affordable Care Act. It at once addresses vexing problems that demand immediate attention, efforts to fully implement existing policies and programs, makes new investments in longer-term outcomes, and takes on the challenging interactions of people with mental and substance use disorders with the public safety system.
The Act calls for new spending of $1 billion in gran...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - January 19, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Richard Frank, PhD Tags: Behavioral Health Brain and cognitive health Managing your health care Mental Health Source Type: blogs
Vocal Biomarkers: New Opportunities in Prevention
Vocal biomarkers have amazing potential in reforming diagnostics through their accuracy, speed and cost-effectiveness in the areas of mental illnesses as well as physical diseases such as Parkinson’s or coronary artery disease.
Your voice betrays you, princess!
The line has a long tradition in literature and cinematography. Its earliest presence might be in the Tales of One Thousand and One Nights by storyteller Scheherezade. In one of her stories her voice reveals a princess dressed in male cloths to a dervish; and he uses this exact line to tell her, he knows he is in fact female.
It has been commonplace since ancient ...
Source: The Medical Futurist - January 4, 2017 Category: Information Technology Authors: nora Tags: Biotechnology Future of Medicine AI artificial intelligence diagnostics gc3 Innovation sensors vocal biomarker Source Type: blogs
7 Ways to Better Understand a Woman ’ s Postpartum Depression
Right now things are kind of confusing. No matter how well a woman plans out her pregnancy and the birth of her child, there’s one thing most never expect to happen — postpartum depression. Feelings of embarrassment, shame, or guilt cloud her thinking and are the number one reason why women with postpartum depression are too afraid to get help.
For Every New Mom Who Feels Like She’s Completely Lost Herself
Sadly, other mothers who have never experienced the debilitating impact of postpartum depression confuse matters. Because they don’t really understand the difference between what’s called &...
Source: World of Psychology - December 17, 2016 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Psych Central Staff Tags: Depression Disorders Family Parenting Publishers Women's Issues YourTango Aria Gmitter baby Baby Blues birth Exercise guilty hormonal Medication Mother Motherhood postpartum depression Pregnancy Self Care Source Type: blogs
Developing a Post-Partum Depression Screening Tool in Mali —Center for Global Initiatives Podcast Episode 3
Johns Hopkins School of Nursing students and faculty talk about their travels, projects, experiences with, and thoughts on global nursing. In episode 3, Developing a Post-Partum Depression Screening Tool in Mali, hosts Anne Schultz and Elyse Rudemiller welcome Dr. Nicole Warren to talk about her work with the GEMS program in Mali and researching and (Source: Nursing Blogs at Johns Hopkins University)
Source: Nursing Blogs at Johns Hopkins University - December 7, 2016 Category: Nursing Authors: Global INITIATIVES Johns Hopkins School of Nursing Tags: CGI Podcasts On the Pulse Africa community Global health Mali Mental Health midwife midwifery nursing postpartum Returned Peace Corps Volunteer RPCV Source Type: blogs
