Mental health issues are the most common complication of pregnancy and childbirth, but too many military families don’t have access to the care they need. Today, NMFA briefed Congressional staffers on the importance of providing maternal mental healthcare. With support from Humana, we talked with Adrienne Griffin of the Maternal Mental Health Leadership Alliance, and Heidi Walker, an advisor with Centering Pregnancy and NMFA’s own Eileen Huck, who advocates for military families’ access to high-quality, affordable healthcare.
Military families go where we send them, move when we tell them, and deal with some of the hardest things we could ask of any American. And they do it voluntarily. We need to make sure they have the support they need.
NMFA is always advocating for those solutions.
U.S. Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Jon Tester (D-MT) and U.S. Representatives Elise Stefanik (R-NY) and Terri Sewell (D-AL) introduced the Improving Access to Maternal Health for Military and Dependent Moms Act to require DoD to provide Congress with a comprehensive study on access to maternal health care within the Military Health System.
U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), a senior member of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, introduced the Maintaining our Obligation to Moms (MOMs) who Serve Act, bipartisan legislation that would provide mental health support for female service members before and after they give birth. The bill is co-sponsored by U.S. Senator Deb Fischer (R-NE), also a senior member of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee. U.S. Representatives Chrissy Houlahan (PA-06) and Don Bacon (NE-02) introduced a companion bill in the House.
And we need to make pregnancy a Qualifying Life Event for TRICARE beneficiaries.
Our health, the health of our families, and the readiness of our service members depends on it. #TogetherWereStronger
If you’re feeling overwhelmed after childbirth, you’re not alone and the National Maternal Mental Health Hotline can help: 1-833-TLC-MAMA