Resources

Perinatal - Pregnancy and Postpartum

HOTLINE AND HELPLINE

Call or text either of these lines 24/7. If you are experiencing an emergency, scared you may harm yourself or a child, go to your nearest emergency room or call 9-1-1.

LOCAL AND NATIONAL MATERNAL MENTAL HEALTH ORGANIZATIONS

Support

  • Postpartum Support International Receive information, find a provider in your area, join a free support group, enroll in the free Postpartum Planning for Expectant Parents group, and so much more.

  • Maternal Mental Health NOW - Have you or a loved one recently welcomed, or are about to welcome, a child into your family?  Depression and anxiety during pregnancy and postpartum affect all family members. We offer information, a self-care app, and a directory of resources so you can find support for yourself and your loved ones.

  • Postpartum Progress - A great website written by Katherine Stone packed with resources to support

    postpartum experience.

  • Kelly Mom Parenting/Breastfeeding - Comprehensive site for information on breastfeeding.

  • The Sterling Life - Get support for pregnancy and postpartum from an ObGyn and parent who built a program that provides comprehensive support for the physical and emotional challenges of pregnancy and postpartum. This is a paid service but is very reasonably priced.

  • Be Her Village - We're helping families get the funds they need to pay for the support they deserve.

  • Seleni Institute - NYC based perinatal mental health organization offering lots of terrific information and resources.

  • Return to Zero -  RTZ HOPE provides compassionate and holistic support for people who have experienced unimaginable loss during their journey to parenthood.

  • Queer Birth Project - LGBTQ+ childbirth prep classes, new and prospective parent group, and non-gestational parent group.

Podcasts

  • Mom & Mind Podcast Dr. Kat is amazing at normalizing topics and incorporating experts, advocates, and leaders.

  • Women's Wellness Psychiatry Dr. Glezer is a reproductive and integrative psychiatrist that aims to help you make sense of the complex world of women's mental health. If your goal is to improve your emotional well-being, find fulfillment, and feel like your best self, you're in the right place.

Advocacy

  • Geaux Far Louisiana - Improving outcomes for young children. We believe in an equitable, unified early childhood system centering racial equity and ensuring families access to seamless, high-quality early child development, health, and educational services.

  • Policy Center for Maternal Mental Health - We are a policy think tank and field catalyst. We inform and facilitate systems change so mothers, children, and families have the best opportunity to thrive.

  • Maternal Mental Health Research Collaborative - MMHRC is a place for moms who have lived experience with a maternal mental illness and who want to engage in research. Peer-led. Mom-centered. Our lived experience lets us close the gap between research and advocacy.

  • Maternal Health Learning and Innovation Center - The mission of the Maternal Health Learning and Innovation Center (MHLIC) is to foster collaboration and learning among diverse stakeholders to accelerate evidence-informed interventions advancing equitable maternal health outcomes through engagement, innovation, and policy. 

  • Building a New Way Forward - The White House Blueprint for Addressing the Maternal Health Crisis - video

  • Center for Parental Leave Leadership is the first consulting and coaching company devoted exclusively to helping our nation’s families, employees, employers, and companies improve their parental leave policy and practice.

  • The MAMAttorney - is the nation’s FIRST law firm devoted entirely to helping women at work. Download the Employment Rights Guide for details on Pregnancy Rights, Maternity Leave Rights, Paternity Leave Rights, Rights After The Leave Ends, Working Mothers’ Rights, and Pumping At Work Rights.

    Parenting Education Classes

  • Training Grounds - All of our learning opportunities are open to parents and caregivers of children ages 0-5 years (unless otherwise specified). Learning experiences are hands on, fun and interactive!  They are strengthened based, active learning workshops designed to enhance parenting skills and decrease feelings of parental stress isolation.  

  • Postpartum Plan - Step by step guide on important topics to consider during the perinatal period.

    Research

  • Effects of Prenatal Stress on Behavior, Cognition, and Psychopathology: A Comprehensive Review: Key findings reveal that prenatal stress can lead to a wide range of adverse outcomes in offspring, including neurodevelopmental disorders, emotional dysregulation, cognitive deficits, mood disorders, and an increased risk of psychopathological conditions.

  • Should Fathers Be Screened for Postpartum Depression? - Study Suggests Fathers Should be Screened for PPD; “A lot of dads are stressed. They’re scared. They’re struggling with balancing work and parental and partner responsibilities,” he said. “Men are often not doing well, but no one is asking them about it.”  

  • State Leadership and Policy Action to Advance Early Relational Health

    This new report documents how states can advance policies that support a child’s and parent’s early relational health (ERH) and well-being with a 50-state overview of 14 policy and program areas.

  • Report: Childbirth Costs Vary Greatly Across Hospitals 
    A recent study published in the JAMA Internal Medicine journal found that the quoted cost of childbirth in the United States varied greatly, not only among different hospitals but even within the same hospital. 

    In the News

  • Time Magazine Names Sage Therapeutics’ Zurzuvae a Best Invention in 2023
    Time selected Zurvuvae the first and only pill that specifically treats postpartum depression as one of 200 best inventions of 2023. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the drug this year, which women with postpartum depression can take daily for two weeks, seeing relief in days. 

  • Postpartum Depression May Have Genetic Roots - Neuroscience News
    Postpartum depression (PPD), a common subtype of major depressive disorder, is more heritable than other psychiatric conditions

  • Depression After Weaning Can Be a Serious Concern for Some New Moms 
    Post-weaning depression is less well-known and researched than postpartum depression.

  • Postpartum Depression May Have Genetic Roots - Neuroscience News
    Postpartum depression (PPD), a common subtype of major depressive disorder, is more heritable than other psychiatric conditions.

  • Postpartum Depression Might Feel Like It Will Last Forever, But New Treatments Are Here To Help - On August 4, The Food and Drug Administration approved the first oral medication specifically indicated for the treatment of postpartum depression. A pill won’t fix America’s maternal health crisis, but it’s still blockbuster news for a field of medicine once shrouded in silence and stigma—and, hopefully, a wake-up call to what mothers have been screaming for millennia: We need help.

Support for Dads

OCD and Anxiety

  • OCD Institute of Greater New Orleans - We at OCDIGNO provide services for people with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and other fear-based disorders.

  • RISE Center - Life isn’t always easy. Sometimes, even the strongest people amongst us need a little bit of help to work through some of life’s more challenging problems. Everyone has battles to fight and hurdles to overcome at some point. Whether you struggle with OCD, anxiety, or a related disorder, you should know that there is hope for a better tomorrow.

Family Systems

  • Fair Play - A time and anxiety saving system that offers couples a completely new way to divvy up domestic responsibilities with the goal of rebalancing your home life, reigniting your relationship with your significant other, and reclaiming the time to develop the skills and passions that keep you interested and interesting.

  • Couples Therapy Intensive - It is hard to make time for couple’s therapy. Between kids, work, extracurriculars and your own self-care, it can feel like, where are we going to fit this in? There is also the issue of coordinating schedules. This is why we created a relationship intensive. It works really nicely for couples who are busy or for couples who don’t want the start and stop method of typical couples’ therapy.

  • Baby Bomb A relationship survival guide for new parents. "This isn't a book about how to have a romantic candlelit dinner while your baby is screaming in the other room. It's a road map for staying connected in the face of, well, a baby bomb."

Books

  • Good Moms Have Scary Thoughts: A Healing Guide to the Secret Fears of New Mothers

  • I Didn't Sign Up for This: A Couples Therapist Shares Real-Life Stories of Breaking Patterns and Finding Joy in Relationships . . . Including Her Own

  • It's On Me: Accept Hard Truths, Discover Your Self, and Change Your Life - Sara Kuburic is an existential psychotherapist, consultant, writer, and columnist for USA Today. She was born in Yugoslavia and raised in Canada. She is passionate about helping people seek change and live authentic, free, and meaningful lives. Her interest in psychology stems from her personal experience living through wars, navigating complex relationships, and continually learning what it means to be human.

  • Real Self Care - is a self-help book that aims to offer self-care tips that go beyond telling individual people to buy more expensive face creams, and instead help readers both live within the systemic outrages of capitalism and find ways of changing the system.

  • Set Boundaries, Find Peace - Simple-yet-powerful ways to establish healthy boundaries in all aspects of life.

  • Dear Mama, You Matter This book will help you feel seen and understood.

Therapeutic Tools

The Pregnancy and Postpartum Anxiety Workbook: Practical Skills to Help You Overcome Anxiety, Worry, Panic Attacks, Obsessions, and Compulsions (A New Harbinger Self-Help Workbook)

Journaling in Fall: Harvest and Hibernation

52 Therapy Journal Prompts

Boundaries Worksheet - Comprehensive exploration of boundaries.

Personal Values Assessment - Help to uncover your core values.