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Maryland is slightly ahead of most states when it comes to supporting maternal mental health, but other states have been gaining ground in the last year while Maryland has been static, according to an analysis that assesses states on a A-F grading scale.
The 2025 Maternal Mental Health , released Thursday, gave this year, pushing the state just ahead of the national average score of a C-.
But health advocates note that 26 other states boosted their 鈥済rades鈥� over last year鈥檚 report card, and say Maryland needs to increase mental health screening efforts to help improve its score for next year鈥檚 report card.
鈥淢aryland has a lot to be proud of in terms of its grade. It is performing better than most states on maternal mental health policies,鈥� said Caitlin Murphy, one of the researchers who worked on the report. 鈥淢aryland is doing better than the national average, which is great 鈥� There鈥檚 a few key areas where Maryland could continue to improve.鈥�
The Policy Center for Maternal Mental Health released its third annual report Thursday to update grades on states鈥� accessibility to maternal mental health services.
鈥淭he good news is that the U.S. national grade has improved slightly from a D+ to a C- 鈥� We鈥檙e also seeing 26 state grades improving this year alone, with five state鈥檚 earning B鈥檚,鈥� Murphy said. 鈥淲e know there鈥檚 still a lot more work to be done on 19 states that are still earning D or F grades.鈥�
This year, five states received B grades, 27 states received C grades, 17 states received D grades and 2 states received F鈥檚. That鈥檚 an improvement from last year, when 24 states received D grades and 5 states receiving failing grades.
鈥淔olks are realizing just how crucial it is to address this. And not only to destigmatize maternal mental health, but really put the policies in place at the state level and the health insurance level to get 鈥� all the things we know are needed to support mental health for moms,鈥� Murphy said.
鈥淔olks are very aware of postpartum depression, but this also includes postpartum anxiety, OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder), psychosis 鈥� which is much rarer. But, there is starting to be more understanding around that,鈥� she said.
The report focuses on several areas where states can improve maternal mental health access to services and health care coverage across the states. Some metrics considered include Medicaid coverage, access to maternal mental health providers, and data from insurance coverage and claims for services.
One category assesses whether Medicaid requires screenings and data collection for mental health concerns such as prenatal depression and post-partum depression. Last year鈥檚 report card docked Maryland over not requiring data collection on mental health screening 鈥� an area that Maryland lost points on again this year.
鈥淪tates can require their health plans to report on rates of maternal mental health screening,鈥� Murphy said. 鈥淩ight now, Maryland does not require its health plans, and in particular its Medicaid health plans, to report on rates of maternal mental health screening.鈥�
Dan Martin, senior director of public policy for the Mental Health Association of Maryland, said that the report card shows 鈥渢hat there is room to improve in Maryland,鈥� including in screening for maternal mental health needs.
鈥淪creening and identification for perinatal mood and anxiety disorders really improves the likelihood for recovery of the mother. It supports healthy childhood development,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t (maternal mental health) can have profound impacts on the health of the mother and her infant and her family.鈥�
That doesn鈥檛 mean that those screenings are not happening, Murphy noted, just that the state doesn鈥檛 require collection of that data, which can make tracking statewide progress difficult.
鈥淭he more health plans that are reporting out the screening rates, the better idea we鈥檙e able to have of if it鈥檚 actually happening 鈥� and that鈥檚 one of the biggest gaps right now in terms of data,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 know yet if maternal mental health disorders are reducing, and part of that is the need for screening to be more universal and for screening to be required, so we can actually track this over time.鈥�
The policy center added new metrics this year that measured whether states invested in group prenatal care for the Medicaid populations. Murphy said such programs help connect pregnant people and new mothers to peers and social supports.
Maryland earned a few extra points for programs such as the Medicaid CenteringPregnancy Program, which brings people with a similar due date together to will learn about what to expect during pregnancy as a community.
But it was not enough to boost the state鈥檚 grade to a C+, Murphy said.
She noted that Maryland is ahead of other states when it comes to health care coverage for pregnancy through Medicaid, the joint federal-state health insurance program targeted for lower-income families and other specific populations.
But with members of Congress deliberating significant cuts to Medicaid, Murphy worries that states will backslide on progress made over the last few years.
鈥淓ven though states are making this incremental progress on maternal mental health, we also know that right now Congress is putting forward proposed policies to cut Medicaid and Health and Human Services programs,鈥� she said. 鈥淚f those kinds of cuts go through, we are going to see state scores and the overall national score backslide.鈥�
KFF, a nonpartisan health research organization, reports that in 2023, 41% of births in the United States were financed by Medicaid. In Maryland, about 42% of births were supported by Medicaid coverage that year.
鈥淭hat statistic is often surprising to folks, but it reflects the fact that this is a really important source of coverage,鈥� Murphy said.
She said that interest in maternal mental health has been increasing over the last few years and hopes that increased awareness of the issue will help deter Congress from cutting supports for maternal mental health services.
鈥淚t鈥檚 been wonderful that over the past several years, I think people have started to understand the depths of how important maternal mental health is and also how far we have to go,鈥� Murphy said. 鈥淭his is a real failure of our health care systems to support our moms and families 鈥� It鈥檚 really a matter of life or death.鈥�
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