Advancing Maternal Health: How Mass General Brigham Researchers Are Shaping the Future of Care

“Following the birth of my three daughters, I became deeply intrigued by the transition to motherhood and how women cope psychologically after childbirth. I quickly realized there was a significant gap in scientific knowledge of the impact of the childbirth experience on maternal mental health outcomes.

Our research shows that women can experience childbirth-related posttraumatic stress disorder, which we coined CB-PTSD, we can identify early signs soon after childbirth, but most women are not receiving any treatment.

We need to screen for CB-PTSD risk in hospitals across the U.S. early on. Screening is the first step to preventing a debilitating condition and to helping mothers build resilience during this critical time.”

Sharon Dekel Tsvetkov, MPhil, PhD
Associate Professor of Psychology
Massachusetts General Hospital

“Pregnancy is kind of like a stress test on the body and can reveal issues that might occur later in life.

Pregnancy can be a window to future health, but it is also a time of high touch with the medical system, and patients are often more motivated to address long-term care needs as a result of the pregnancy.

Patients want to be heard, and by listening to them we can create clinical programs and support such as multimodal educational tools that can be truly impactful.”

Ann C. Celi, MD
Center for Fetal Medicine and Prenatal Genetics
Brigham and Women’s Hospital

“Pregnancy complications can herald lifelong medical concerns for the mother.

Most women are unable to sustain ongoing medical care between their pregnancies because they generally feel healthy and prioritize the care and needs of their infant and their family over themselves.

However, numerous avenues can encourage postpartum women to engage around their health. Incorporating advances in virtual care, patient-generated health data, and continuity with known providers allows them to include their healthcare as a priority along with the wellbeing of their infant and family.”

Louise E. Wilkins-Haug, MD, PhD
Division Director, Maternal Fetal Medicine and Reproductive Genetics
William Lambert Richardson, MD, Endowed Chair in Obstetrics and Gynecology
Brigham and Women's Hospital

“When I was in elementary school, my mom created a specialized clinic to care for women with HIV at a time when little attention and treatments were available to women and children. I think her unwavering commitment to address the needs of families impacted by HIV/AIDS had an important role in developing my interest in maternal child health, my becoming a physician, and ultimately focusing on caring for families impacted by addiction.

While in medical school I took care of many infants that were prenatally exposed to opioids and, while we learned to treat symptoms of withdrawal, there was little follow-up support to ensure both the mother and infant thrived after delivery.

Parents are so motivated to make healthier choices for their babies during pregnancy, I wanted to work to maintain and enhance that motivation during the postpartum year when challenges frequently arise.”

Davida Schiff, MD
Director of Perinatal and Family-based SUDs Care, Massachusetts General Hospital
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School

“My journey in studying maternal and child mental health originated at age 10 when my sister was born. I was old enough to observe how she navigated the world as an infant and how those early interactions led her to becoming the remarkable person she is today.

As a mom of two boys, I continue to have the privilege of observing up close the maturation that takes place in children. In our lab, we video-record interactions between parents and children, and children and their friends, which allows us to learn what they say and how they express themselves nonverbally within these important relationships.

Having vast amounts of data, and with the advent of machine learning, there is a remarkable opportunity for us to obtain new insights about human behavior in ways we have not been able to do before.”

Cindy H. Liu, PhD
Director of the Developmental Risk and Cultural Resilience Program
Departments of Pediatric Newborn Medicine and Psychiatry
Brigham and Women’s Hospital

“I find the intimate connections between maternal and child health fascinating — there’s so much to learn about mom’s health from the health of her children.

Our research demonstrates that our reproductive health is much more closely connected to our other bodily systems, like our cardiovascular and immune systems, than we ever dreamed.

It boils down to the ‘knee bone is connected to the thigh bone,’ which is something we all probably know from kindergarten.”

Janet Rich-Edwards, ScD
Investigator
Division of Women’s Health, Department of Medicine
Brigham and Women’s Hospital