Caring for the Whole Family: Interprofessional Approaches to Perinatal and Postpartum Mental Health

Featuring

• Erin Ronder Neves, Birth and postpartum Doula, Certified Lactation Counselor, Childbirth Educator, and Spinning Babies® Parent Educator
• Dr. Courtney Neill, CACCP
• Dr. Dana Allan, PhD
• Sarah Gregory, IBCLC
• Team from Beyond Birthing 

Perinatal and postpartum mental health doesn't fit neatly into one discipline's scope of practice and neither does effective care. This presentation explores how it takes a team of professional to come together to support the whole family unit during one of life's most vulnerable transitions. Through collaborative, team-based approaches, presenters will highlight how shared expertise, open communication, and mutual respect across disciplines lead to more responsive, holistic care for parents and infants alike. Attendees will leave with practical strategies for building stronger interprofessional partnerships in their own practice settings.

By the end of this online session attendees will be able to:

• Describe the distinct and overlapping roles of nursing, social work, occupational therapy, and doula/birth support in identifying and addressing perinatal and postpartum mental health concerns, using the case of "Maria" to illustrate points of collaboration and potential role ambiguity.
• Analyze how interprofessional communication and timely handoffs (e.g., screening results, referrals, care coordination) influence outcomes for a postpartum family experiencing depression, breastfeeding difficulty, and social isolation.
• Apply a team-based, whole-family approach to postpartum care planning by proposing a coordinated, sequenced intervention plan that integrates each discipline's contributions to support both maternal mental health and the mother-infant relationship.

Register for this online event

If you experience any challenges with registration, please contact amorris@salemstate.edu.