Melissa Passarelli & Laraib Humayun Present Well Moms, Well Tots: Maternal Depression and Mother-Child Well Being

Docs for Tots’ Director of Programs Melissa Passarelli and Health Liaison Laraib Humayun recently presented Well Moms, Well Tots: Maternal Depression and Mother Child-Well Being, at the Annual Conference for Parent-Child Home Program (PCHP) on May 8th. Melissa and Laraib discussed the importance of maternal well-being and improving maternal depression screening. Maternal depression has a significant impact on quality of life and can impair a mother’s ability to develop healthy attachment and parenting skills in a child’s early years. This can lead to the child having impaired social, emotional, cognitive, and motor development as well as bring on developmental delays. Melissa and Laraib addressed considerations such as stigma and language barriers that make it harder to communicate with providers and connect to helpful services. As members in public health, we must work together to eliminate the stigmas and have mothers feel comfortable to let someone know about their experiences.