Associate Professor Maggie Bublitz, Ph.D., has received a Fulbright Scholarship to study maternal mental health in the United Kingdom and New Zealand in the 2024-2025 academic year. Over the course of her trips, Bublitz will interview health care providers, policy makers, and community members about best practices in maternal mental health in the two nations, both of which show better maternal health outcomes than the United States.
“Rather than reinvent the wheel, I thought it would make sense to go to other places and learn about their models of service delivery,” said Bublitz, a clinical psychologist and senior research scientist at Lifespan. “That way, we can identify best practices and incorporate new ideas for maternal mental healthcare delivery that can be shared globally.”
The United States has one of the highest maternal mortality rates among high-income countries. That death rate is intimately tied to mental health: The leading cause of pregnancy-related deaths in the first postpartum year is suicide. As a perinatal psychologist and leader of integrated behavioral health teams, Bublitz is at the forefront of research and clinical work on mood and anxiety disorders that can make the perinatal period such a dangerous time.
“We’re not the first to embed mental health into an OB/GYN clinic, but a lot of places don't have a model of care like that,” Bublitz said. “The work I do with my colleagues is a strength that I can bring to the places I’ll visit.”
The goal of the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program, which operates in over 160 countries, is to facilitate idea-exchange and collaborations that can address global challenges. In her two months at each site, Bublitz hopes to learn from the unique features of health delivery in each location.
At King’s College in London, which Bublitz is visiting in late summer, she will observe how maternal mental health is delivered within a national system that provides universal access to care. At Massey University in Wellington, New Zealand, which she will visit in early 2025, she will study a highly family- and community-focused model of care. A branch of the New Zealand Ministry of Health is also devoted to the health of the Māori, the country’s Indigenous population.
“New Zealand leads the world in Indigenous studies and they integrate Māori culture and practices into health care,” Bublitz said. “I think we can learn so much from their approach, with the hopes that the US could do something similar for our marginalized pregnant people who disproportionately experience maternal morbidity and mortality.”
Ultimately, Bublitz hopes to come away with ideas that could be applied and studied here at home – new ways to identify people who are vulnerable to perinatal mental health disorders, different forms of community outreach, or broader community-level interventions.
“For over a decade, I’ve been wanting to pursue research with a global framework, but I’d struggled to identify a funding mechanism that would allow me to ask some of these questions,” she said.
Bublitz credits the support she’s received through Brown, which produces an outsized number of Fulbright Scholars, as essential to getting her Fulbright. She met with Joel Revill, Ph.D., the deputy dean for academic and student affairs, to prepare and finalize her application. Fellow faculty Katherine Sharkey, M.D., Ph.D., and Ghada Bourjeily, M.D., provided supportive recommendations. Bourjeily also connected Bublitz with a colleague in New Zealand who serves as her sponsor there. (Fulbright Scholars must have a sponsor in each host country.)
Over 800 individuals teach or conduct research abroad through the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program annually. The program has produced 62 Nobel Laureates, 89 Pulitzer Prize winners, 80 MacArthur Fellows, 41 heads of state or government, and thousands of leaders across the private, public, and non-profit sectors.
“It’s an overwhelming feeling to receive such a prestigious award,” Bublitz said. “I’m just really grateful to be included in a cohort of scholars who are doing really amazing work”