Moms are frustrated, too. After the baby comes, no one asks about the baby’s mother anymore.
Wendy Root Askew struggled for years to get pregnant, and when she finally did, her anxiety got worse. She couldn’t stop worrying that something would go wrong.
“And then, after I had my son, I would have these dreams where someone would come to the door and they would say, ‘Well, you know, we’re just going to wait 2 weeks to see if you get to keep your baby or not,’ ” Ms. Root Askew said. “And it really impacted my ability to bond with him.”
She likes California’s bill, AB 2193, because it goes beyond mandated screening. It would require health insurance companies to set up case management programs to help moms find a therapist, and connect obstetricians or pediatricians to a psychiatric specialist.