Maternal mental health is making headlines. Experts say it’s long overdue | CNN

Adrienne Griffen had just given birth to her second child in 2001. The “baby blues” that had quickly subsided after her first pregnancy did not seem to be going away after her second – and they were much more intense. When she talked to her doctor, they abruptly informed her of their duty to call Child Protective Services if she hurt her children. “I am here to get help, so I don’t hurt my children,” she replied. “Well, we don’t want another Andrea Yates,” she recalls the doctor saying, referring to the Texas mom who drowned her five children in the bathtub that same year. It took another six months after that conversation for Griffen to get the help she needed for her postpartum depression. “It was like banging my head against a brick wall,” Griffen, now CEO of the Maternal Mental Health Leadership Alliance, told CNN. Twenty-five years later, a lot has changed, she said – but not enough. Conversations about maternal mental health that once existed only in hushed tones have broken into mainstream consciousness amid the ongoing trial of 36-year-old labor and delivery nurse Lindsay Clancy, who says she strangled her three young children while experiencing post

Aug 23, 2026 → Aug 23, 2026