From an article in the Raleigh News & Observer by Sarah Lindenfeld Hall: This week, the University of North Carolina Center for Women’s Mood Disorders opened a weekly outpatient clinic at Rex for women with postpartum depression. Rex is part of the UNC Health Care System. On Nov. 3, a six-bed inpatient unit for women with the illness will open at UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill. The rooms will come equipped with gliders for rocking babies and breast pumps for nursing mothers. There will be space for extended visits with their children, therapy for the patient and her family, and help from lactation consultants and doctors.
UNC’s inpatient program will be modeled after similar programs in Britain. A couple of hospitals in the United States offer day programs for women with the illness. But UNC’s unit, where women will stay overnight, likely is the only one of its kind in the United States.
AWESOME!!! Way to go UNC! I hope this is the beginning of a trend. Being in a separate unit from other psychiatric ills, where mom can visit/take care of her baby is …well, I'm looking for the right words!
OMG…I may need to see if my insurance covers this and head over there. They probably have a waiting list. I hope more hospitals start implementing programs like this one. It is definitely a need that has been overlooked for so long.