State mandates screening for postpartum depression

BY JEFF WHELAN, The Star-Ledger (nj.com), April 14, 2006

Health care providers will be required to screen new mothers for postpartum depression and teach the women and their families about the disorder under a bill Gov. Jon Corzine signed into law yesterday.

State Senate President Richard Codey, while serving as governor last year, had provided $4.5 million to help encourage screening and education statewide.  The new law, which advocates said is the first of its kind in the nation, makes the screening and education mandatory in postnatal care.

Corzine said that despite a massive budget deficit that resulted in severe cutbacks in other areas, his proposed spending plan for the upcoming year keeps the funding established by Codey in place.  The governor said the law will improve the likelihood that women suffering from the disorder would get the appropriate treatment and was "a significant and positive step for New Jersey's mothers, newborns and families."

Codey's wife, Mary Jo, had championed the law last year by openly talking about her own struggle with postpartum depression.  During the ceremony at the Hackensack University Medical Center yesterday, which marked Corzine's first public bill signing, the former First Lady was hailed for her courage.

"Thanks to my wife, Mary Jo ... today we are not just providing a safety net, we are building a support system," said Sen. Codey, who attended the signing with his wife.

Mary Jo Codey credited other women who have sought to raise awareness about the issue but lacked the high-profile platform she was given during her husband's term as governor.  She said she stepped forward in hopes other women would not suffer the way she did.

"I suffered like a dog and thought no woman on Earth should ever suffer like this," she said, adding that she thought to herself at the time, "If God would ever get me out of this mess I wouldn't keep my mouth shut.  I would do something about it."

State officials said about 80 percent of women experience depression after childbirth, though symptoms usually last two weeks for most.  But for one in eight women -- about 11,000 to 16,000 -- the situation is more serious.  Women may lose interest in friends and family, feel overwhelming sadness or even have thoughts of hurting the child.

Alexis Menken, a psychologist and the New Jersey Coordinator for Postpartum Support International, said the law will serve as a national model.  Mary Jo Codey said she has already been invited to speak in Minnesota and New York, where officials are contemplating similar laws.