May was Maternal Mental Health Month and to close the month out I sat down with Carrie Banks to discuss the mental health challenges faced by moms in rural communities of the United States. Carrie is the Peer Support Programs Director at Postpartum Support International. After the birth of her first child, she was diagnosed with postpartum depression, anxiety, and OCD. It was a life-changing experience that led her to switch gears from land conservation work to perinatal mental health. Raised on a farm in the Appalachian Mountains of Western North Carolina, Carrie has a special interest in improving access to mental health services for rural families. North Carolina was recently reported to have the most counties (actually, tied with Nevada) with worsening risks for perinatal mental health conditions. 

 In our Tea & Policy episode, Carrie outlines the challenges particular to rural moms. We also discussed how the proposed federal cuts, that essentially gut Medicaid, would affect rural communities in particular, where almost 50% of births are covered by Medicaid. Carrie makes it clear in our discussion, the planned cuts to Medicaid, “would truly be devastating”. And once again, as we heard in last year’s Tea & Policy episode with Dr. Pooja Lakshmin, Carrie pointed out that paid family and medical leave would go a long way to improving perinatal mental health, and there is data to support this policy. 

Want to dive deeper? Click on the video below to catch the full conversation and to find resources and tools to help us address the maternal mental health crisis.

Here are some resources to get you started:

• Postpartum Support International  

• Urge Congress to protect Medicaid and funding for maternal health!

• National Maternal Mental Health Hotline

Share your postpartum story (or record your story here, very impactful) to let our leaders know that we won’t suffer in silence!