Enhancing Postpartum Care: Integrating Mental Health Support into Lactation Services through Collaborative Social Work Practices

Background: Many women turn to Lactation Support Providers for postpartum breastfeeding support. Lactation Support Providers help new mothers with breastfeeding techniques, increasing milk supply, and enhancing breastfeeding rates. However, the potential of Lactation Support Providers to identify mental health issues and connect mothers to mental health care has not been fully explored.

Research Aim: to explore the potential role of Lactation Support Providers in bridging the gap in new mothers' access to mental health services. While Lactation Support Providers primarily focus on supporting breastfeeding, there is an opportunity to examine how they can extend their support to address the mental health needs of new mothers.

Method: A prospective cross-sectional online survey design was used. We administered the survey to 185 Lactation Support Providers across the United State between March and August 2022. This survey assessed level of knowledge and practice experiance of Lactation Support Providers in identifying and referring women to mental health services.

Results: Over 80% of participants agreed that assessing for perinatal mood and anxiety disorder symptoms is within the scope of lactation support practice. However, only half of the participants reported that their training included information on Postnatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders. Participants recently trained as Lactation Support Providers reported a higher level of knowledge about the differences between Postpartum Depression and Postnatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders. About 80% of participants reported being comfortable speaking with their clients about mental health symptoms. However, only 40% used a screening tool to assess their clients' mental health.

Conclusions: It is recommend providing Lactation Support Providers with additional training to identify Postnatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders symptoms and differentiate them from Postpartum Depression symptoms and creating a network of providers for Lactation Support Providers to refer women to for mental health services. These changes that have the potential of improving the well-being of women and their families.