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Maternal Mental Health Professional Learning Community

A guide for Saybrook students, faculty, staff, and alumni interested in ongoing professional development regarding the latest reseach, policies, and advancements in addressing maternal mental health.

Welcome to the Maternal Mental Health PLC

Maternal Mental Health Professional Learning Community

The Maternal Mental Health Professional Learning Community (PLC) is a community of scholars, advocates, students, and alumni committed to addressing maternal mental health. Maternal mental health (MMH) conditions are the leading cause of pregnancy complications, impacting childbearing individuals during pregnancy or the year following pregnancy; they include a cluster of conditions referred to as perinatal mood and anxiety disorders (PMADs). PMADs can include anxiety, depression, OCD, PTSD, bipolar illness, or psychosis.   

Did you know?

  • As many as 1 in 5 childbearing people in the United States (nearly 800,000 people) experience a PMAD (Fawcett et al., 2019; Gavin et al., 2005; Wang et al., 2021). 
  • Nearly 3 out of 4 go untreated due to stigma and lack of access to trained providers (Byatt et al., 2015).
  • Untreated PMADs negatively impact the gestation, birth, and postpartum health of mothers and infants (McKee et al., 2020).
  • The estimated annual cost of untreated PMADs is nearly $14 billion every year due to poor birth outcomes and lost wages (Luca et al., 2020).
  • Suicide is a leading cause of maternal mortality (Chin et al., 2022; Lindahl et al., 2005; Trost et al., 2021).
  • These conditions have a profound humanistic burden on all affected (Reinhart et al., 2018).

These conditions are preventable and treatable through community support, clinical training, research, public health policies, and global awareness. That's where the Saybrook MMH PLC comes in!

Members of the MMH PLC represent a diverse and inclusive community of Saybrook stakeholders coming together to learn, advocate, and collaborate on projects to increase awareness of maternal mental health conditions for all childbearing people. To join or obtain more information, please get in touch with MMH PLC by clicking here.

Immediate Resources

 

Professional Learning Communities

What is a Professional Learning Community?

At Saybrook, a Professional Learning Community (PLC) is a collaborative group of faculty, staff, students, alumni, or other stakeholders (or any combination thereof) who engage in shared learning experiences around a common topic or area to enhance academic, professional, community, and personal development. PLCs focus on advancing understanding of the topic in a manner that can be shared with others.

For full details on Saybrook PLCs, see our Professional Learning Communities page.