Woman’s Hospital leaders reflect on first year of Louisiana’s first perinatal mental health unit

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - At Woman’s Hospital in Baton Rouge, a new resource is helping pregnant and postpartum women confront one of the toughest, and often unspoken, challenges new mothers face.

The hospital’s perinatal mental health unit, which opened in 2024, is the first and only one of its kind in Louisiana. It is designed to support women who are pregnant, postpartum, or grieving after a stillbirth or miscarriage.

On average, about one in seven women experiences postpartum symptoms, according to health experts.

“That’s half a million women every single year that have these symptoms,” Cheri Johnson, Executive Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer, said.

Since its opening, the unit has admitted more than 200 patients from over 30 parishes and six states. Because the program is