What is a Perinatal Social Worker

Employed in a variety of settings, perinatal social workers help individuals, families, and communities respond to psychological issues that emerge during the period from pregnancy through an infant's first year of life.

Within the health care professions, there is increasing recognition that the feelings and concerns associated with the perinatal period are exacerbated by problems such as medically high risk pregnancies, premature and sick newborns, drug use by the pregnant woman and/or her family, psychologically and intellectually limited parents, ambivalence about the pregnancy, and poverty.

Perinatal social workers intervene to:

• ameliorate the effects of these and other problems;
• assist in creating healthy and nurturing parent-child relationships;
• advocate for the client within the health care setting and in the community.

When a perinatal loss occurs, the perinatal social worker helps families to understand, express and cope with their feelings of grief.

As health care consultants, perinatal social workers provide information and support to other members of the health care team.

Where We Work

NAPSW Associates can be found typically in the following facilities:
Newborn Intensive Care Units (NICUs)
Prenatal Clinics
Family Medicine Departments
Public Health Agencies
Genetics and Infertility Clinics
Hospitals
Family Planning Clinics
Developmental Follow-up Centers

What We Do

NAPSW Associates assist in the following health care settings:
Pregnancy and Family Counseling
Bereavement Counseling
Discharge Planning and Followup
Case Management
Referrals, Networking, and Outreach
Teaching of Social Work Students
Teaching of Families
Teaching of Nurses, Physicians, and Other Health Care Providers
Family Support Groups
Research

The National Association: Organization

The National Association of Perinatal Social Workers was incorporated in 1980 for the purpose of promoting, expanding, and enhancing the role of social work in perinatal health care. The organization's objectives include:

• education
• program planning
• evaluation
• research
• standard setting for perinatal social work