Newly published findings from Mathematica and the Vermont Department of Health estimated that the societal costs of untreated perinatal mood and anxiety disorders (PMADs) among birthing parents in Vermont reached $48 million. Investing in the prevention and treatment of mental health conditions in pregnant and postpartum people could go a long way toward decreasing that burden.

PMADs are mental health conditions that develop during pregnancy and the year after delivery. They are the most common complication of pregnancy and childbirth and include diagnoses such as depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

In Vermont alone, PMADs increased from about 20 percent in 2014 to 25 percent in 2020, according to the report. The total societal cost of untreated PMADs in Vermont—which include direct costs, such as medical costs, and indirect costs, such as lost work time—reached $48 million for all births when following the parent–child pair from pregnancy through five years postpartum. This amounts to $35,910 in excess costs per birthing parent with an untreated PMAD and their child. The largest cost drivers include preterm birth ($13.1 million), productivity loss ($12.5 million), non-obstetric health expenditures ($9.4 million), and child behavioral or developmental disorders ($6.1 million).