The Importance of Maternal Mental Health
By Manny Vazquez, M.S., LMFT
June 10, 2026
One of my specialties as a professional mental health counselor is 0-5 mental health. Sometimes, people ask me how old my youngest client has been while I’ve been in private practice. I tell them he was 3 years old, and my oldest client was 73 years old. Actually, one of the insurances I am paneled with states in their details about me that I can see clients 0-99 years old. Why they stop at 99 years old, I’ll never know. I suppose no one can tell me not to provide psychotherapy to a person who is 103 years old, but I honestly do not think I would ever have a client that old.
Now, what exactly does the zero mean in ages 0-99? Most people assume that age 0 is at birth, but I would say that age is more like one minute, five minutes, an hour, or a day, etc. No, age 0 actually means when the Mom is pregnant with her child.
I have counseled many pregnant Moms, and I have learned over my many years in practice what their strongest desires are, what their hopes and dreams are, and what things in their lives affect them the most. My heart breaks when I see how much these women love the fathers of their children, and how the men seem to be scarcely out of their own childhood, unable to care for themselves, let alone care for the young woman and their child. I’ve seen many men who unfortunately would make terrible fathers, but I’ve also met many young fathers who do not shirk their responsibilities and want very much to be their children’s Fathers and be in their lives, bearing the responsibility of being a Dad.
For several years when I worked at an Agency in El Monte, CA, I was trained in 0-5 mental health. The reason for this was because I had been hired as an assessor in a program that was a collaboration between the Department of Mental Health and Department of Children and Family Services. In that program, I was on the Multidisciplinary Assessment Team (MAT), and I participated in trainings with some of the pioneers in 0-5 mental health.
I saw videos of expert practitioners who could redirect infants to stop crying within half an hour and encourage them to laugh and smile at the clinician. What I learned very quickly in those trainings as I saw children crying and throwing tantrums calm down and begin to squeal with laughter with the psychologist is the basic life lesson that a child’s poor mental health is usually a result of their parents’ poor mental health or something that is happening in the environment, perhaps out of the control of the parent.
When I see a depressed or an anxious child, I don’t see the disorder arising out of something inherent in the child. Something or someone that is happening to them is always the cause. Until we recognize that certainty, children will continue to suffer with such horrible things as childhood anxiety, childhood depression, childhood schizophrenia, or even childhood bipolar disorder.
Now, you may believe that diseases like that exist in children. I don’t. I have met children whose parents described behaviors that many of my colleagues would automatically assign a childhood diagnosis to, potentially leading to medications that adults can scarcely take themselves.
If you want to medicate your child, you may do so; I cannot recommend you not to if some doctor truly believes your child’s mind is so diseased and you agree. What I will assert to you is that there is a better way. When a Parent brings a child to me who has what I call disordered thoughts, I can help that child improve their thinking and behavior. In time, I can help that child regain healthy thinking in full collaboration with the Parent(s).
The ultimate thing that we can do for good infant mental health that will lead to good child mental health is to counsel mothers when they are at their most vulnerable—during pregnancy. When women are pregnant, so many things are different than when they are not. Their bodies are in constant flux as the little life in them grows.
It is vitally important that pregnant mothers receive the mental health support they need, especially if their relationships with the father of their child or their loved ones are broken. Unhealthy relationships do untold amounts of damage to a Mother and her unborn child. If the pregnant mother is involved with a violent man, the damage to her and her child is very severe indeed.
As clinicians, it is crucial that we be aware of every aspect of a pregnant woman’s health: physical health, mental health, emotional health, relational health, spiritual health, and any area of health that has the potential to negatively affect them and their child.
One of my goals with pregnant Moms is to help the fathers of their child become capable of leading the Mom and the child. There have been several times when fathers have joined counseling sessions with their pregnant girlfriends or wives. It is a beautiful thing to behold when a man steps up and decides that he is going to lead a woman whose child belongs to him.
As counselors, we must be willing to listen to pregnant Moms, understand what they need, and yes, what they want, so that she and her child will lead long, healthy, and joyous lives.