Byatt

Sheep farmer Megan Byatt's home is too remote to get a reliable connection.

Meanwhile, perinatal care is not required in psychiatric training, and some psychiatrists still decline to treat pregnant women entirely, Byatt said.

Providers can get pulled into this dynamic too, even though pregnancy is known to be a time of increased risk to mental health, said Nancy Byatt, a perinatal psychiatrist and a professor at UMass Chan Medical School.

To Byatt, maternal mental health is not a gap but a crevasse.

Byatt has attempted to address this chasm through setting up the Lifeline for Moms program and the Massachusetts Child Psychiatry Access Program for Moms, which has been rolled out across 30 states and assists patients, psychiatrists, and obstetricians alike.