ST. PAUL, Minn. - The vast majority of new moms experience some level of the "baby blues" - the weepiness, the fatigue. However, according to a new report from the Children's Defense Fund-Minnesota, 10 percent of them experience severe maternal depression.

Marcie Jefferys, the group's director of policy development and author of the report, says research underscoring the importance of a child's early environment has exploded, and maternal depression could be a factor.

"Maternal depression can have a big impact on children. However, we can also help parents by targeting services and offering them to families, so the new mother does not need to experience depression, and her children are not affected."

Jefferys says some of the more successful services include home-visiting programs and Head Start - but none of the programs are universally available, leaving many families without the help they need. Wilder Research estimates the annual costs for each mother experiencing unaddressed maternal depression at $23,000, including pregnancy and birth complications and lower productivity.

Because maternal depression is more long-lasting and severe, Jefferys says it's much more difficult to come out of without support. She stresses that depression is not the mother's fault or a reflection of her parenting abilities.

"It actually has a physiological effect. It raises the cortisol levels that will affect both the mother's health and the baby in the womb's health. It can also result in elevated stress-hormone levels, even after the child is born."

The physical effects of maternal depression were debilitating for Ellie Zuehlke. Thirteen days after the birth of her first child, she was hit with severe depression that took her nearly a year to recover from - partly because it took her time to find appropriate care, even though she had easy access to services.

"I was really fortunate in that I had good health insurance. I had short-term disability, so I was already planning to take three months off work, and I was able to get the services I needed. Boy, did I really need them! I could not care for my baby, I could not drive a car - even brushing my teeth was such a struggle."

Even though she is a health care professional, Zuehlke feared letting anyone know how she was feeling, concerned they would take away her baby. She also was afraid that if her employer found out, she would lose her job.

Zuehlke urges moms not to let such fears stop them from seeking help.

"Absolutely, you need to get help when you are in that situation. You are not in a position to be able to deal with it alone. My message to moms and families is to reach out, get help wherever you can, and you will recover. As hopeless as it seems while you are in it, it really does get better."

She also urges health care providers to do routine screenings of moms and familiarize themselves with specialists in maternal depression, so appropriate referrals can be made.

The report is available at www.cdf-mn.org.




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More than one million children in Texas no longer have health insurance through Medicaid, despite being eligible for coverage, according to a new report from the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, states were not allowed to cancel coverage - then last year, state health departments were tasked with rechecking the eligibility of Medicaid recipients.

Brittney Taylor-Ross, senior policy analyst with the advocacy group Every Texan, said despite the option to slowly complete the task, Texas chose to do it in one year's time.

"We didn't take up a lot of the flexibilities that were offered, so that was a state choice at the leadership level. We also chose to go through this unwinding process pretty quickly. Other states have paused their process when they've seen that things don't look right," Taylor-Ross said.

The report shows Texas has disenrolled more children than any other state. Anyone who lost coverage must reapply. Taylor-Ross said as of April, the median amount of time to process a new Medicaid application is 95 days. Federal law requires this number to be 45 days or less.

Most families don't realize they no longer have coverage until they go to the doctor's office.

Joan Alker, research professor, McCourt School of Public Policy, and executive director, Georgetown University Center for Children and Families, said the problem affects not only families, but the pediatricians and clinics that treat them.

"Kids are going to miss out on those well-child visits, they're going to miss out on getting the medications they need - be it an inhaler for their asthma or an ADHD medication. And that really sets them back, both in their health and their success in school," she said.

Because of the unwinding, more than 4 million fewer children are enrolled in Medicaid. One out of four of those children lives in Texas.

Wyoming's suicide rate ranks first in the nation, according to the most recent data, and state lawmakers are taking steps to improve access to mental health care. The state budget recently passed by legislators prioritized ten million dollars for investments in mental health for K-12 students.

Rep. Jon Conrad, R-Evanston, was also able to earmark nearly $11 million for the Wyoming 9-8-8 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. Conrad said children are more vulnerable now than ever before.

"The challenges that they face - with not only peer pressure, but world events, local events, bullying - have really led us to a point where we are seeing an increase in suicides, unfortunately," he said.

Suicide is the seventh leading cause of death in Wyoming, but it's the second leading cause of death for residents between the age of 10 and 44. Nationally, more than 49,000 people died by suicide in 2022. That's one death every 11 minutes. The Biden administration recently launched a new national suicide prevention plan to address what it calls an urgent and growing public health crisis.

If you or someone you know is in crisis, please call 9-8-8, or text W-Y-O to 741-741.

More than 20% of high school students seriously considered suicide in 2021, and nearly one in ten tried to take their own lives. Conrad was unable to secure $40 million in this year's budget for the 9-8-8 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, enough to permanently fund the program. Conrad says since August of 2022, the lifeline has answered more than 15,000 calls from Wyomingites.

"And only 2% of those required elevation to the next level, specifically ambulance, or law enforcement, etc. So it is working, the challenge for us and me is to get it to be permanently funded," Conrad said.

Stigma has long been a barrier for people struggling with suicidal thoughts, depression and anxiety disorders, and other mental-health challenges. Conrad believes the prevailing sentiment that individuals should "man up" or "cowboy up" needs to change.

"But you know what, I think manning up and cowboying up is reaching out a hand of fellowship to that person that seems a little distant - whether you like him or not - but someone you see disengaging, and reaching out and saying, 'How can I help?' " Conrad said.


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A new report from Georgetown University's Center for Children and Families says nationwide, 4.16 million fewer children were enrolled in Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program.

The report tracks the impacts of lifting COVID-19 coverage protections on Medicaid enrollment, showing that Tennessee experienced more than 59,000 disenrollments.

Michele Johnson, executive director of the Tennessee Justice Center, said 76% of people in Tennessee who've lost coverage did so due to procedural reasons, meaning the state doesn't know whether they're eligible or not.

"A couple of weeks ago, we had a two-year-old who had recently had a heart transplant. His family got the packet, they mailed the packet back, and then the response they got back was, 'The income you submitted showed you were over the income.' The two-year-old with a heart transplant got a notice that said, 'Because you never responded to the packet, you're losing coverage,'" she lamented.

Johnson added a persistent issue they are seeing is, the state has been sending Medicaid renewal packets to the wrong addresses, causing families to lose coverage, and continuing the process without fixing the issues.

Johnson said half of children in Tennessee rely on Medicaid for their health coverage. While Tennessee is a low-income state, the Medicaid income eligibility threshold allows many children to qualify for this insurance program, which is crucial for their well-being.

"We know with comprehensive health coverage, children do better as adults, are more likely to finish college, and they're more likely to have jobs as adults that don't require them to ever be on public assistance," Johnson explained. "At least 60,000 children have lost coverage -- and probably more like 100,000 children -- have lost coverage."

Joan Alker, research professor, McCourt School of Public Policy, and executive director of the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families, said they have closely monitored how ending the pandemic's continuous Medicaid coverage policy has affected children's enrollment. She called it a lack of political leadership, since governors are ultimately accountable for administering Medicaid and CHIP programs in their states.

As Alker put it, "States that saw a really large number of children disenrolling, I place that squarely on the governor -- because the folks doing the work needed the resources, they needed the staffing, they needed the procedures and the effort to make this a smoother process than it has been."