Research Study Brings Mental Health Care to New Moms Statewide
By this point, Sarah McCormick was used to the exhaustion, used to the dragging numbness that weighed her down. It had hit her hard after the birth of her first child. “I’d have lots of fatigue, no energy. I’d find that I just feel really numb,” she says. “Everything feels like a chore. And everything feels heavy. You can’t find the good things and the joy in life.”
She’d tried counseling and medication, but it hadn’t gotten any easier. And after the same thing happened after the birth of her next three kids, she was resigned to the idea that it wouldn’t.
Why it matters:
Research studies by the University of Utah are bringing needed support to pregnant people and new moms across the state from cities to the frontier. For the one in five pregnant people who experience depression, research is changing—and saving—lives.
At the time, she blamed herself for her symptoms, thinking, “Unless I’m willing to eat 100% right and exercise, and make sure I’m getting sleep… [depression] is just going to be my lot in life.”
She was wrong.
After the birth of her daughter Amelia in 2020, once again living with severe postpartum depression, McCormick joined a research study designed to connect rural Utahns with telehealth support groups—and something finally clicked. Her mood started to improve almost instantly. She says, "When I combined medicine with this program, it finally was like, Oh! This is the ticket."
Hope for parents
McCormick isn’t alone. Up to one in five pregnant people experience depression during pregnancy or after giving birth. And these perinatal mood disorders can have deadly consequences: substance use and suicide are among the most common causes of maternal death in the first year after giving birth.
The good news is that perinatal depression is treatable. For most people with perinatal depression, therapy or medication can help. But many folks never get the treatment they need—stigma can prevent people from seeking help, and people in rural areas may live hours away from the nearest mental health provider.
professor at the University of Utah College of Nursing, knew things could be different.
She started a study to see if a new intervention could help people with perinatal depression. To reduce stigma and make sure nobody fell through the cracks, she started using brief mental health surveys at all pregnancy and postpartum health visits across U of U Health and in several state public health clinics, including in rural health districts.
People whose survey results indicated a risk for perinatal depression were connected with additional resources—including the option to join one of Latendresse’s telehealth support groups.
Pregnant people and new moms tuned in to weekly sessions to learn mindfulness-based therapy techniques and connect with others in the same boat. The online format helped keep the program accessible for everyone. “Women didn't have to worry about transportation or finding childcare,” Latendresse says. “They could stop for an hour and join the group from wherever they were.”
The results were remarkable. Participants in the eight-week program had much lower depression scores, even half a year later.
The group format also helped people feel a sense of connection to others living with similar symptoms.
“It normalizes it; you don’t feel as marginalized. You can feel like you are part of a community.”
How studies help
Research-based interventions like Latendresse’s help real people like McCormick by testing better ways to solve urgent problems in public health. Because they’re paid for by research funds, they’re free to participants—helping bring care to any Utahn who needs it. Now, Latendresse is expanding the intervention’s reach by adding “on-demand” mental health modules to U of U Health’s online education portal for pregnant patients, helping people get support right when they need it.
Latendresse sees technology as an important part of making sure every pregnant person and new parent gets the mental health support they need.
“Mental health services should be a component of prenatal care and postpartum care that’s just integrated,” Latendresse says. “It’s seamless, it’s there, it happens.”
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This article was originally published in and was adapted from .
