Educating Providers: The Key to Perinatal Mental Health

When Kimberly Wong told her OB-GYN something was seriously wrong, she was dismissed as a "type A personality" who needed rest. As a result she suffered severe postpartum depression and she was left to navigate recovery largely unsupported.

That breakdown became the catalyst for action. Years later, she founded Maternal Mental Health NOW to address the biggest barrier to care: doctors, nurses, and even therapists weren't learning about perinatal mental health in school. Eighteen years later, the organization trains everyone from OB-GYNs to children's librarians because perinatal mental health isn't just postpartum depression—it's anxiety, rage, intrusive thoughts, conditions that show up during pregnancy and after birth, affecting at least one in five parents (one in three in communities of color). The work reveals a stark reality: home visitors who build long-term relationships screen 98% of families with 20% disclosing symptoms, while clinical settings screen 53% and catch only 5%. Sometimes the most powerful intervention is a pediatrician who pauses during a weight check, notices tears, and asks "How are you doing?" That question, when asked with genuine attention, can be the difference between a parent suffering in silence and finding a path forward.