Another Untapped Superpower of Child Care

For parents with postpartum mood disorders, child care centers can play a pivotal role.

One in five new moms and one in 10 new dads experiencing a postpartum mood disorder, though many are never formally screened. Child care centers are learning more about the role they can play to support parents in this. Photo by Jenna Norman on Unsplash

During the fall of 2020, while the rest of the world was feeling stuck during the ongoing pandemic quarantine, Nicole Kumi felt empowered at home. She’d just given birth to her second child, he was eating well, and breastfeeding was going much smoother than when she nursed her daughter three years earlier. But it was short-lived—after a few weeks, he’d become colicky, crying endlessly. 

“The deal was that I’d sleep from 8 pm to midnight, and my husband would sleep from midnight until 4 am,” said Kumi. But when it came time for Kumi to lie down, she couldn’t sleep. Her mind raced anxiously. One night, after she thought she’d heard a scratching noise in the kitchen, she took apart every chest and drawer convinced there would be evidence of a mouse. 

There wasn’t. 

The next morning, with the kitchen in complete disarray, Kumi and her husband acknowledged that she needed help. Kumi, who is now a behavioral health specialist counseling women with postpartum mood disorders, decided to reach out to her daycare provider. Though her son was only seven weeks old, the woman who ran it assured her that they would watch over the baby and that Kumi should go get some sleep. 

“She was my savior,” Kumi said. “The way my child care provider made me feel - that is the power that you have when you’re standing next to the moms who are struggling.”

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Nicole Kumi gives a presentation to the child care staff at Wonders Extended Day on how child care workers can support parents with a postpartum mood disorder. (Photo by Rebecca Gale)

A dozen women listen to Kumi share this story and nod in understanding. All 12 work for the Bethesda-based child care center Wonders Early Learning + Extended Day. They’re gathered to take part in a training on how to identify and help parents who experience a postpartum mood disorder. “These professionals play a pivotal role in connecting and interacting with parents during such a vulnerable time,” said Kumi. And the more people who are aware of how a postpartum mood disorder can look in parents of all types—moms, dads, birthing parents, and adoptive ones—the more resources can be offered to those seeking help. 

Leah Meyer has seen a shift in postpartum support for mothers over the last decade. As a clinical social worker working with Postpartum Support International, she goes out into her community in Tulsa, Oklahoma to educate pediatricians and OB-GYNS on the symptoms and signs of a postpartum mood disorder. By encouraging more people to look for and identify early warning signs, they can refer women to groups like PSI that can help. 

“So far we have focused on reaching out to the medical community, with pediatricians and OB-GYNS and giving them information about this,” said Meyers. But she was recently approached by a child care center asking for a postpartum mood disorder training.

“It’s part of a larger trend,” Meyer explained. The people working in child care have access to parents on a daily basis, as opposed to a pediatrician who might be seeing the parents a handful of times in those first few months. The child care providers, too, may have access to mothers at higher risk of postpartum mood disorders- ones who may not have access to reliable medical care or a close relationship with their doctor, or someone who has had to return to work very soon after giving birth who doesn’t qualify for paid medical leave.

Liza Pringle, the curriculum and instruction specialist at Wonders, opted to be trained in postpartum mood disorders after sharing with Joanne Hurt, the executive director, that one pregnant mother didn’t seem like herself when dropping off an older child. Hurt reached out to Mikah Goldman Berg, the chapters program manager for Postpartum Support International, who connected her with Kumi, who serves on the Maryland chapter’s board. 

Pringle was surprised to learn how often a pediatrician’s office assumed such screenings were done by OB-GYNs, and how often OB-GYNs thought the pediatrician’s office was doing them. Only 20 percent of moms receive a screening, according to data from Postpartum Support International, despite one in five new moms experiencing a postpartum mood disorder, and one in 10 new dads.

Berg believes that training people who come in contact with new parents is one of the best ways to increase awareness of postpartum mood disorders and encourage those affected to seek help. Like Kumi, she knows this from first-hand experience following the births of both of her daughters. It wasn’t until she found a support group through PSI that she understood she wasn’t alone. “Having people say, ‘You are not alone, you are not to blame, and, with help, you will be well’ is what made a difference,” Berg said. “So many moms don’t know it's so prevalent or where to look for help.” 

For anyone struggling with Postpartum Mood Disorders, all of the PSI Get Help resources can be found here. 

This Substack has been adapted from my research and story which ran in the May 2024 issue of Bethesda Magazine.

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You’re Invited:
Holding It Together: A Conversation with Jess Calarco

If you missed last week’s Substack on Holding it Together: How Women Became America’s Safety Net with Jess Calarco, or if you loved the Q+A and want more, you’re invited to a live conversation with us next Tuesday, June 18th at 3pm eastern. It’s free to join and we’d welcome your questions! Sign up here.

Details below:

Join Better Life Lab and the CareForce to discuss Jessica Calarco’s new book, “Holding It Together: How Women Became America’s Safety Net.” Calarco, who works as an associate professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin, made headlines in November 2020 when her quote: “Other countries have social safety nets; the U.S. has women” went viral. It resonated with so many people while still getting to the heart of what makes being a caregiver in this country so incredibly frustrating - it’s hard, it’s time-consuming, and we’re expected to do it while being given no support, financial or otherwise.

This conversation will delve into the reasons that caretakers in this country feel that so much pressure rests on their shoulders and too many expectations are heaped onto them. The United States does not have a robust social safety net the way many other industrialized countries do. We have no federal child care infrastructure and no federal paid family leave plan. In our conversation, we will explore why that is, how the lack of such systems hurts families, and what we can do about it.

This online fireside chat will be introduced by Eve Rodsky, author and founder of the Fair Play Policy Institute and Calarco will be interviewed by Rebecca Gale of Better Life Lab.