Featured PSI Member: Amanda Yeaton-Massey, MD

Amanda Yeaton-Massey, MD
Assistant Professor of Maternal-Fetal Medicine
Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences, University of California, San Francisco

Tell us a little about yourself outside of your work.
Since becoming a mother, most of my time outside of work has been focused on spending time with my two wonderful children. I have an almost five-year-old son and a two-year-old daughter. They are awesome and they are exhausting! We spend lots of time at the park, running errands, and going on outings. I do find time to practice yoga and enjoy flower arranging.

What sparked your interest in maternal mental health? Is there anything you’d like to share about your path?
After my own experience with perinatal depression, I redirected my academic focus to increasing awareness and improving diagnosis and treatment of mental health disorders in pregnancy. I realized how little I knew about anxiety and depression in pregnancy, and subsequently how I had missed many opportunities to care for my patients. My journey to get educated was part of my own healing process.

Tell us about your work.
I am an Assistant Professor of Maternal-Fetal Medicine in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco. I spend my time at UCSF Mission Bay and Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital seeing patients who have high risk pregnancies. Pregnancies are considered high risk due to medical, surgical, fetal, or genetic complications existing prior to or developing in pregnancy. My job includes direct patient care (seeing patients in clinic, attending on our antepartum unit, and doing ultrasound in our prenatal diagnosis unit), education (for medical students, residents, and fellows), and research.

How has PSI membership been beneficial to you and your career?
PSI has been instrumental in educating me about maternal mental health. After I decided I wanted to learn more about maternal mental health I completed the 8 week, “Maternal Mental Health Certificate Training for Mental Health and Clinical Professionals” and took what I learned back to my department. We formed a maternal mental health working group (with psychiatry, social work, nursing, and maternal-fetal medicine) to identify gaps in care and generate solutions including patient education materials and resource/referral sheets for providers.

 What do you think the PSI world community might like to know about your work in Maternal-Fetal Medicine?
Happy to answer other MFM related questions. I feel like I am somewhat unusual in being in MFM and that most people in PSI are mental health professionals. If there are things other people want to know I am happy to share. [Note from PSI: Members can look up Amanda Yeaton-Massey in the Membership Directory by logging into the PSI portal.]

Anything else you’d like to share?
One of the reasons I am so forthcoming about my personal experience with perinatal depression is my desire to be a part of changing the conversation around maternal mental health. I believe that it is only by talking openly can we remove the stigma and shame that many women feel.

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PSI thanks volunteer Dina Drankus Pekelnicky for her work on this post.