Sonoma County Maternal Child and Adolescent Health

California State Maternal and Perinatal Health Data Updates are now available. What's going well? Who needs more support?

California State Maternal Child and Adolescent Health (MCAH) Division creates dashboards to serve data needs of partners and stakeholders. Click the button below to all available 2018-2020 dashboards:

Data Dashboards

Where we are doing well:

Perinatal Concern:	California Rate	Sonoma County Rate
Early Prenatal Care	87.9%	90.4%
Adequate Prenatal Care	73.6%	72.9%
Folic Acid Use	37.3%	93.9%

Where we are not doing well:

Severe Maternal Morbidity	California	Sonoma County	Healthy People 2030 Goal
2019-2021	104.2:10,000	139.2:10,000	68.1:10,000

Perinatal Depression

California Department of Public Health MCAH Datasheets

Prenatal Depressive Symptoms

2018-2020

Postpartum Depressive Symptoms

2018-2020

California

14.6%

12.7%

Sonoma County

24.2%

23.9%

Depression, characterized by feelings of sadness, emptiness, or hopelessness, or loss of interest or pleasure in doing things one usually enjoys, is one of several mental health conditions experienced during pregnancy or postpartum. Prenatal depression increases the risk of preterm birth, low birthweight, and pre-eclampsia and can negatively impact breastfeeding and a birthing person's ability to bond with their baby. Perinatal depression also increases a birthing person's risk of chronic depression and suicide as well as the child's risk of developmental problems. With appropriate treatment, most birthing people can experience full recovery!

Screen and Refer:

California legislation requires providers to offer mental health screening to birthing people at least once during or after pregnancy.

ACOG recommends screening during pregnancy and at the postpartum visit. Additional recommendations include screening at the first obstetric visit, at 24-28 weeks gestation, and during the comprehensive postpartum visit.

Validated screening tools and standardized questions have been shown to identify depression 50% better than casual conversation.

See the Sonoma County Perinatal Mental Health Toolkit for more information, assessment tools, and referral resources.

Plan for Prevention

The social and financial costs of undiagnosed and untreated Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders are extraordinary, and potentially life-long. The cost is estimated (2018 data) to be $22,500.00 per mother, not including the long-term costs of impaired maternal infant bonding, poor infant growth and childhood emotional and behavioral problems. See the Sonoma County Perinatal Mental Health Toolkit for local and national Preventive Interventions.

Mental Health Toolkit

Perinatal Weight Gain:

California Department of Public Health MCAH Datasheets

Excessive Weight Gain during Pregnancy

2018-2020

California

42.6%

Sonoma County

47.5%

Excessive weight gain is associated with pregnancy related hypertension, gestational diabetes, postpartum weight retention, and caesarean delivery, as well as multiple neonatal outcomes including large-for-gestation-age (a marker of neonatal morbidity) and childhood obesity and overweight.

Prenatal and Perinatal Nutrition Resources have been updated:

USDA MyPlate has been updated for Pregnancy and Breastfeeding to include apps, recipes and individualized eating plans for all stages of life. The site includes client handouts and tip sheets. The Perinatal Food Group Recall has also been updated (and simplified!).

MCAH offers prenatal weight gain grids for pre-pregnancy Underweight, Normal Weight, Overweight, and Obese Weight range, as well as for twin pregnancy Normal, Overweight, and Obese pre-pregnancy weight.