Moms who are struggling with their mental health before, during and after pregnancy have 24/7 access to a free national Maternal Mental Health Hotline.

The hotline, which launched on May 8, recently received additional funding through the 2022 omnibus spending bill which passed in December.

Call or text 1-833-943-5746 (1-833-9-HELP4MOMS) to use.

The Maternal Mental Health Hotline is not a crisis line, so it should not be used in place of emergency services (those struggling with immediate threats such as suicidality should contact 988, the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline). However, there’s no limit to how many times someone can contact the hotline or stay on the phone.

Read more: Alabama task force launched to tackle maternal mortality, mental health challenges.

When someone calls the hotline, they’ll be connected with a licensed or certified counselor, who will provide information, support and resources to the caller. Counselors are also trained “in how to provide culturally appropriate and trauma-informed support,” according to the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration website.

“A mom or their loved one may contact the hotline as many times as they need to,” a spokesperson for HRSA wrote in a statement.

Hotline counselors include:

• Nurses
• Doctors
• Mental health clinicians
• Doulas
• Childbirth educators
• Peer support specialists

If needed, hotline counselors also can provide the caller with a referral to local or telehealth services. They take the caller’s preferences for gender, ethnicity, age and language into account when providing referrals, a HRSA spokesperson confirmed.

“That helps with Alabama, because I mean, if you think about it, we do have a lot of different cultures, we do have high rates of substance use disorder. It’s one of the top things that’s killing our moms — are mental health and substance use in the state in that first year after pregnancy,” said Honour McDaniel, the Alabama director of maternal and infant health initiatives for March of Dimes. “To have this mental health hotline is going to be big for our state as a whole.”

Alabama ranks third-worst in the United States when it comes to maternal mortality and sixth worst in infant mortality. Recent reports point to women’s struggles with substance use disorders and cardiovascular health and revealed that the majority of women who died within a year of giving birth used Medicaid.

HRSA’s website lists the following symptoms of depression and anxiety as some of the most common in pregnant people and new parents:

• Feeling sad or hopeless most of the time
• Lack of interest in things you used to enjoy
• Less interest in caring for yourself (dressing, fixing hair)
• Trouble concentrating
• Trouble coping with daily tasks
• Constant worry about your baby
• Sleeping or eating too much or too little
• Feeling very anxious or nervous
• Unexplained irritability or anger
• Unwanted or scary thoughts
• Feeling that you are not a good mother
• Thoughts of hurting yourself or your baby

The Maternal Mental Health hotline offers texting or calling services in both English and Spanish, along with interpreter services for 60 additional languages.

With the additional funding from the 2022 omnibus spending bill, McDaniel said more promotional resources will be available to make new parents aware of the hotline.

“That line item budget translates into: Okay, we’re going to have more people who are culturally and linguistically aware, we’re going to have people who understand substance use disorder,” McDaniel said. “We’re going to have increased amount of awareness campaigns, things like that, so women know: ‘Hey, there’s a maternal mental health hotline that I can call and just get information, talk with someone, not be penalized for that.’”