'I just feel empowered:' Moms Mental Health Initiative hosts discussion aimed at addressing perinatal mental health crisis

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- One in five mothers are impacted by mental health conditions -- and it's one of the leading causes of death for women in the first year of pregnancy.

That's according to the Maternal Mental Health Leadership Alliance (MMHLA), a nonprofit "dedicated to promoting the mental health of mothers and childbearing people in the United States."

Those conditions are also the most common complication of pregnancy and birth, with around 800,000 families in America affected each year.

On Thursday morning, Oct. 10, the Moms Mental Health Initiative (MMHI), a southeast Wisconsin-based nonprofit, hosted a discussion at Alverno College to help raise awareness about the perinatal mental health crisis. 

"We need to be prepared to love on this community, support on this community, so that they can kind of thrive despite having postpartum or perinatal anxiety or depression," said Dr. Erica McKinney, a psychologist with the Medical College of Wisconsin. “I’m fired up because I think with this passion that we all are having; it really puts us in a very good place to advocate.”

Dr. McKinney noted that what some might call a simple conversation could actually lead to big and positive impacts.

"Mental health is a stigmatized topic and when you add on this other layer of pregnancy and postpartum, patients really struggle with anxiety and depression during these periods," Dr. McKinney said. "It's really important that the community, we come together to find solutions to better support this population."

For Chelsea Melendez-Kapitan, a mother of two, the event was emotional.

"Both times I had postnatal depression," Melendez-Kapitan told CBS 58's Ellie Nakamoto-White. "I just feel empowered."

Melendez-Kapitan said that many parents she knows are "in this fight or flight mode."

“And then people are like, how are you feeling, or why are you like this, or why don’t you do more, and it’s like they’re already doing everything they can do to survive," Melendez-Kapitan said. 

Another attendee, Shaquita Faulkner, agreed, noting that she hopes the community has more similar events.

“It makes me feel like there’s so much more that I need to do, that we need to do, and it’s so much more education and training," said Faulkner, who also runs a coordination agency called Milwaukee Moms Prenatal Care. “Since being a prenatal care coordinator, I’ve noticed that there was so much more that I needed to learn and I figured coming here, I would be able to bridge those gaps and to find out where to look for those resources.”

Officials said they hope to host more discussions in the future. 

For more information on events, click here.