PITTSBURGH (TNS) — Jessica Tucker, a 38-year-old mother living in Brookline, started feeling depressed when she was 20 weeks pregnant.

Tucker spoke to her doctor at Allegheny Health Network, who referred her to West Penn Hospital’s intensive outpatient program created in 2018 to help expectant- and new mothers process feelings of sadness and grief associated with postpartum depression.

During a press conference Thursday at West Penn, Tucker turned to Ewurama Sackey, her doctor and the medical director of the women’s behavioral health program at Allegheny Health Network, and said, “You saved my life.” Her baby, Willow, is now almost a year old.

The gathering at the hospital in Bloomfield was part of a push to win backing for a Shapiro administration plan to bolster maternal health care and instate universal postpartum depression screening for all Pennsylvania mothers in the Commonwealth. Debra Bogen, the state’s health secretary, said the plan is to set aside $5 million in the 2025-2026 state budget to fund the effort.

Gov. Josh Shapiro reserved funds in his 2023 — 2024 budget proposal specifically for maternal health, with the goal of reducing maternal death and complications, a first for a Pennsylvania governor.

In this session’s proposal, Shapiro hopes to fund training of medical professionals to recognize the condition, instating universal screening, speeding up referrals to care when moms test positive for postpartum depression and creating a hub and local support network where families can access resources.

Pittsburgh-area health officials welcome the effort.

“We see the growing demand for our services far exceeding our current capacity, and this underscores the urgent need for increased investment,” said Sackey.

Postpartum depression — defined as debilitating anxiety, depression or thoughts of self harm following childbirth — impacts one in seven women in the U.S. and one in eight in Pennsylvania. It’s estimated that more than half of all postpartum deaths occur with the first two weeks following childbirth, suicide being a leading cause of maternal death.

While it’s normal for expecting and new mothers to feel the “baby blues,” characterized by mood swings, irritability and anxiety shortly after giving birth, postpartum depression is clinically distinct, more severe and poses a risk to the child and the rest of the family, said Sara Goulet, special advisor to the state Department of Human Services.

Demand for postpartum services is higher than ever, said Brian Johnson, president of West Penn Hospital where about 4,000 babies were delivered last year. About 8,400 babies were delivered across all AHN locations in 2024.

It’s a demand that health officials in the Pittsburgh community have been chipping away at for years, and the hope is that additional state funds can bolster those efforts.

In 2018, Alexis Joy D’Achille Center for Perinatal Mental Health was created within West Penn. The center addresses mental health care of pregnant and new mothers with depression and other mental health challenges.

The center, which is near the hospital’s emergency department off Millvale Avenue in Bloomfield, is where Tucker met other struggling moms.

The center was created in the honor of Steven D’Achille’s wife, who died by suicide in 2013 five weeks after birthing their child. The idea for the foundation and the center came to him while she was in intensive care after her suicide attempt. She died two days later.

“We desperately sought access to care that just did not exist,” said D’Achille. “I believe that had my wife had access to a facility like this, I would still have my wife and my daughter would still have her mother.”

The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services partnered recently with the Pennsylvania Doula Commission to create a certification program, and the state now has 171 certified doulas who can support mothers through their pregnancy and postpartum journey, said Goulet.

Pregnant people who meet certain criteria and income requirements may also be eligible for Medicaid coverage for up to one year after their child’s birth. A third of all Pennsylvania births are covered by the state’s Medicaid program.

Bogen, a pediatrician in Allegheny County for 25 years and the health director of the Allegheny County Health Department before becoming health secretary, said she helped implement depression screening for new mothers. Stigma has decreased over time, but it’s still too high, she said.

“That screening was vital,” she said. “Universal screening allowed us to offer support, education, referral, options for evidence based treatments and follow up.”

While screening can help catch mothers who may otherwise fall through the cracks, it’s only a first step, said Priya Gopalan, chief of psychiatry at UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital and a psychiatrist at UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital.

“We have to be thinking about all of the things that factor into perinatal mental health more broadly,” she said, including access to transportation, child care, housing and stigma that may prevent mothers from coming forward about their struggles.

At UPMC Magee, health care providers screened more than 12,000 women last year for postpartum depression, she said, and 18% came back positive. Through partnerships with other care teams in the system, including obstetrics, pediatrics and family medicine, the hospital was able to refer them for additional support.

Telemedicine will play a crucial role for families in rural areas, said Gopalan.

“We are very blessed here in Western Pa. to have many services, but that’s not true across the state,” said Bogen.

Postpartum depression and perinatal care are bipartisan issues, Bogen added, so she hopes the state legislature will accept the portion of funds Shapiro wants to reserve for these purposes.

“They funded this last year, and we hope they will fund it this year,” she said.

The legislature is expected to vote on the budget later this summer.