Mental health during pregnancy among the top health problems for pregnant women in Missouri

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (KY3) – Editor’s Note: This report is about mental health and is about depression and suicide. If you or a loved one is experiencing mental health issues, please call the national hotline 988 for help.

Missouri’s leading health experts have identified mental health as one of the most common issues that pregnant women deal with, but now the challenge is to help them.

To further the state’s efforts to combat high maternal mortality, the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services has released a new report on pregnancy-related illnesses. This report contains data from 2017 to 2021 and is the first to show the impact of this epidemic on maternal health in Missouri.

During the five years covered by the report, Missouri saw about 70 women die in pregnancy or after giving birth each year. The highest number of deaths recorded in one year was 85 in 2020. The national maternal mortality rate is 22 per 100,000 live births, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Control, but Missouri would be in the top ten.

Graph courtesy: Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services

The main concern for the health of pregnant women, mentioned in the report, is heart disease, closely followed by mental health. Depression, anxiety and other mental health problems were exacerbated by the epidemic, as reported in the report.

Mental health problems can manifest in many different physical ways in pregnant and postpartum women. Unfortunately, some can end in suicide. During the five years shown in the report, 14% of people who died were suicides.

Dr. Jean Goodman with MU Health said all mental health issues are considered preventable if a person receives care and treatment.

Mental health problems are common. Alison Williams is a registered nurse who now works with the Missouri Hospital Association and the Pregnancy-Associated Mortality Review, which compiled the report.

Williams said: “We see it as a failure, as if there’s something ‘wrong’ with you that might be different from a physical examination. “But in reality … It can be very difficult. , and it can cause a lot of stress and anxiety that is honestly out of control.”

Williams herself struggled with mental health during pregnancy.

Williams said: “With my second pregnancy, I dealt with anxiety and depression, and with the second one, it was very difficult. “It was not considered a priority. was being investigated at the time.”

Williams said education and connecting resources are key to helping people through these challenges.

The report says that COVID-19 was the cause of death for two-thirds of pregnancy-related deaths in 2021. Goodman says she has lost more patients during the pandemic than she has in decades. three.

“Unfortunately, COVID was unknown to all of us, and we didn’t have a good treatment method, and even with the best equipment and skills available, we still lost patients, ” said Goodman. “In a period of 30 years, I had only one mother who died during that time, and I lost several in the first six weeks of the epidemic. ”

Over the past two fiscal years, Governor Mike Parson and the Missouri Legislature have invested more than $10 million to address maternal health issues. Although it will be years before the data shows any potential progress, Goodman said the state is already seeing a return on that investment thanks to new programs at hospitals around Missouri. .

“You can see right now in the district that we have programs that are open in a very short period of time,” Goodman said. “Maternal Health Program administered by DHSS. This provides access for any woman caring for a woman before, during, or after pregnancy to be connected immediately to someone with counseling skills. “

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