AS POSTPARTUM MENTAL HEALTH MAKES NATIONAL HEADLINES, PENNSYLVANIA NONPROFIT OFFERS FREE SCREENINGS TO MOTHERS 8 TIMES IN THE FIRST YEAR POSTPARTUM

NurturePA says recent national conversation shows why frequency and responsiveness are key in postpartum care 

Christina Simkovich is also available for interviews, and her contact information can be made available by contacting Susan Crookston. To view a short clip of her testimonial, click here. 

PITTSBURGH, PA — September 3, 2026 — This summer's national headlines, including the death of actress Hayden Panettiere, who spoke publicly about her own postpartum depression, and the closely watched Massachusetts trial of Lindsay Clancy, whose defense centered on her documented struggles with postpartum mental illness, have put a spotlight on a gap that Pittsburgh-based nonprofit NurturePA has spent years working to close: the lack of consistent postpartum mental health screening following birth.  

Most mothers are screened for depression and anxiety once, if at all, during the entire first year after having a baby, typically at the 6-week postpartum checkup. NurturePA offers free, confidential postpartum screenings via text to the mothers in its program eight times over that same period. Any mom with a child under one can be screened, if they choose, by signing up for NurturePA’s one-on-one text-based support. 

“A single screening at a six-week checkup tells you how someone is doing on one day,” said Susan Crookston, Executive Director of NurturePA. “And that’s if they are even able to make that appointment, which studies show is far from universally attended. Postpartum mental health conditions don't wait for an appointment to show up, or a certain time threshold, and they don’t always show up right away. We check in throughout the first year because that’s when things are actively changing for the mother, and that’s when the relationship between the mother and her peer supporter is actively being built. That first year is when a mother needs someone to notice what is happening with her, even if the mom can’t voice it herself.” 

NurturePA provides free, text-based peer support to mothers in Pennsylvania from pregnancy through their child’s fifth birthday, pairing each mother with a trained and experienced peer supporter for ongoing, low-barrier contact. Mothers get to know one another, and repeated mental health screening is built into that relationship, rather than treated as a separate event. This allows peer supporters to better recognize the signs of postpartum mood disorders and to help a mother connect to further care, whether that be a doctor, a therapist, or a crisis line, well before a situation becomes an emergency. 

NurturePA participant Christina Simkovich is candid about how depression feels to a new mom: “I felt like I had a wall, which was very hard for me because I’m an extremely loving person. I love kids. I love people. I’m very affectionate. So I was like, why is this happening to me with my own baby? Why do I feel a wall? Why don’t I feel that joy and love and connection? It was flipping me out.” 

Having another mom — a real human being — who had been in her shoes and was helping her navigate these challenges was very impactful. “She assured me it was just a stage and it would pass. She said, ‘don’t put pressure on yourself right away to feel all these things, because that’s what society makes us feel as women, that we should be over the moon.’ She knew I was tormented that I didn’t feel these things. 

“NurturePA was so different from the other support I was receiving at the time. It was still support, but in a very non-pressure way. I can genuinely say from experience that I would recommend Nurture PA to any new mother or pregnant mother. It was so helpful to me to have an outside source where I could be honest and have that nonjudgemental support from another mom.”

Crookston adds, “We’re not a replacement for clinical or psychiatric care, and we don’t want to be. We’re the layer that’s supposed to sit between appointments, and for a lot of mothers, that layer doesn't exist right now. Eight offered screenings with personal follow up in the first year is our way of making sure we’re missing something critical to our participants’ wellbeing.” 

Roughly one in five mothers experience a maternal mental health condition, and national data consistently shows most go undiagnosed or undertreated in the months after childbirth. According to the Pennsylvania Maternal Mortality Review Committee Report (MMRC), in an analysis of 2021 data, the leading causes of pregnancy-related deaths in Pennsylvania are behavioral health conditions (Healthy Moms, Vibrant Futures PA Maternal Health Strategic Action Plan, 2025). NurturePA encourages other perinatal support programs, health systems, and funders to treat screening frequency and responsiveness, not just screening existence, as standards worth exploring. 

About NurturePA

NurturePA is a Pittsburgh-based nonprofit organization providing free, confidential mom-to-mom texting support to mothers of children under 5 across Pennsylvania. Through trained volunteer peer supporters, NurturePA connects moms with encouragement, resources, and community, one text at a time. Over twelve years, more than 6,000 moms have been engaged and more than 900,000 texts have been exchanged.  

To sign up, learn more about NurturePA, or volunteer as a peer supporter, visit https://www.nurturepa.org.