Addressing Perinatal Mental Health Conditions in Obstetric Settings

Overview

Perinatal mental health conditions affect more than one in five perinatal individuals and are the most common complications of pregnancy. These conditions include mental health conditions with onset during pregnancy or the first postpartum year and mental health conditions with onset that predates pregnancy.

This eModule provides information and resources that will help obstetric care clinicians detect, assess, treat, monitor, and follow up with patients experiencing perinatal mental health conditions. Our goal is to help integrate mental health and obstetric care using a strengths-based, trauma-informed, culturally humble approach and help obstetric care clinicians increase access to timely and evidence-based mental health care for their obstetric patients.

ACOG is pleased to offer this free online course dedicated to helping obstetric care clinicians address perinatal mental health.

Objectives

At the conclusion of this course, participants will be able to …

Describe the patient care pathway to follow when addressing perinatal mental health conditions
Determine how to screen and evaluate illness severity, including how to assess intrusive thoughts and the risk of patient harming themself or their infant
Recognize the risks of untreated perinatal mental health conditions and how to provide evidence-based treatment
Learn how to select, initiate, and adjust treatment as needed based on patient response

Developed through a partnership with Lifeline for Moms at UMass Chan Medical School, this course is available to obstetric care clinicians, trainees, and allied health professionals including—but not limited to—obstetrician–gynecologists, nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, family physicians, medical students, residents, and fellows.

Credits

ACCME Accreditation

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists designates this enduring material for a maximum of 2 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

College Cognate Credit(s)

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists designates this enduring material for a maximum of 2 Category 1 College Cognate Credits. The College has a reciprocity agreement with the AMA that allows AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™ to be equivalent to College Cognate Credits.

Conflict of Interest Disclosure

This project was supported by the National Institutes of Health Small Business Technology Transfer Phase II grants under numbers 2R42MH113381-02 and 3R42MH113381-03S1, which were awarded to UMass Chan Medical School and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Cooperative Agreement OT18-1802, which was awarded to ACOG.

All authors, contributors, reviewers, and staff have submitted a conflict of interest disclosure statement, and any potential conflicts have been considered and managed in accordance with ACOG’s Conflict of Interest Disclosure Policy. This policy, along with ACOG’s Privacy Policy, can be found on acog.org.

Conflict of interest disclosure for planning committee and staff:

Stephen Bush, MD, discloses the following relationship: Teaching Faculty: Applied Medical
Nancy Byatt, DO, discloses the following relationship: Consultant: JBS International, VentureWell, Medical Director of Research and Evaluation, MCPAP for Moms, Executive Director, Lifeline for Families Center and Lifeline for Moms Program
Tiffany Moore Simas, MD, discloses the following relationships: Investigator: Research Fundings Via CDC, NIH, PCORI, SAMHSA, ACOG, Perigee Fund; Consultant: MCPAP for Moms

All other planning committee members and staff have no conflict of interest to disclose relative to the content of the course.