Pregnant and postpartum women in South Carolina can now access a free program that uses text-based touchpoints to connect mothers to resources for mental health support.
Listening to Women and Pregnant and Postpartum People is offered through the Center for Telehealth at the Medical University of South Carolina. It provides regular text-based screenings throughout pregnancy and up to 12 months postpartum and a free virtual visit with a registered nurse 5-7 days after discharge from the hospital. The free program also connects families to community resources offered with SC Thrive.
One in five women experience maternal mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety, and substance use disorder. Dr. Constance Guille, a reproductive psychiatrist and director of the Women’s Reproductive Behavioral Health Division at MUSC, said she created the program in an effort to improve effective screening and identification of mental health problems and getting people referred appropriately to treatment. Her team discovered text-based screening has a higher success rate in comparison to in-person screenings.
“When we use text and phone… people are three times more likely to screen positive for these conditions in comparison to when they're asked face to face,” Dr. Guille said. “They’re over four times more likely to get referred to treatment and 5.7 times more likely to attend treatment in comparison to usual care.”
Dr. Guille said she wants more people to understand that peripartum mental health conditions affect the entire family unit, and not just at the mother. Studies show that untreated maternal health conditions impair children’s development.
“There’s something about that postpartum year that’s really critical for maternal health and bonding and child development,” Dr. Guille said. “We want people to understand the gravity of these conditions and we want them to understand that there is help available and that treatments actually work, people do get better.”
