Mental Health Justice for Every LA Birth

Health care access

County of Los Angeles (select only if your project has a countywide benefit)

Expand existing project, program, or initiative (expanding and continuing ongoing, successful work)

Despite being childbirth’s most common complication, perinatal mood and anxiety disorders are dangerously underaddressed in our healthcare system. Fewer than 17% of birthing people receive proper screening, while even fewer who are struggling access treatment. This crisis deepens along fault lines of inequality. The Los Angeles Mommy Baby survey revealed alarming statistics: among the roughly 120,000 births annually in Los Angeles County, a staggering 33% of Black birthing people experienced depression and 27.6% experienced anxiety. LGBTQ+ populations similarly faced elevated PMAD rates compared to the general population. Black and Hispanic, lower income, and LGBTQI+ people and families face formidable additional barriers to care—practical obstacles like lack of insurance, transportation, and childcare; lengthy waiting periods for critical services; systemic racism, homophobia, and transphobia breeding deep distrust of healthcare systems; and the silencing weight of social stigma.

Our approach flows through multiple channels:
1. Live and Interactive Online Trainings build the capacity of health care institutions, social service organizations, and county departments to identify and appropriately respond to perinatal mood and anxiety disorders in diverse patient populations. We work closely with established organizations serving LA County’s 0-5 population, including the African American Infant & Maternal Mortality Doula program and Los Angeles Best Babies Network, among many others.
2. Peer Support programs bridge critical service delays by providing immediate help to birthing families and reflect the diversity of experiences and challenges marginalized people face: Sana Sana, a warmline offered in English and Spanish; Your Queer Parenting Journey, a safe space for LGBTQ+ people navigating family building; and Strength in Tiny Steps, supporting Black parents through the trauma of NICU stays.
3. Storytelling programs promote healing, raise awareness, and de-stigmatize perinatal mental health challenges. 
4. Black Birth Workers Community Initiative reduces disparities in perinatal mental health outcomes by addressing the physical, economic, and social conditions of the Black workforce that serves the approximately 9,000 Black birthing people in LA County. 
5. Policy & Advocacy work increases access to informed and culturally appropriate perinatal mental health care by authoring briefs and recommendations and advocating for county and state legislation.

Los Angeles County—a region spanning over 4,000 square miles with 10 million residents—serves the largest and most diverse birthing population in the country. The complexity of our region has pushed us to develop solutions that are adaptable, community-centered, and scalable. We believe that health equity will be achieved when all birthing people—regardless of race, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, language, immigration status—who are struggling with perinatal mood and anxiety disorders receive timely, informed, and culturally responsive care. We often say: if we can do this in LA, we can do this anywhere!