Women's Mental Health Research Program

The Women’s Mental Health Research Program at Baylor College of Medicine supports researchers from multiple different disciplines with the shared objective of better understanding women’s mental health conditions.  

The program was established by BCM faculty members Dr. Nicole Cirino, director of the division of Reproductive Psychiatry, and Dr. Alison Goulding, an assistant professor in the division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine, both within Baylor’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology.  

What We Do

The primary goal of the Women’s Mental Health Research Program is to support collaborative research projects from clinical researchers with shared interests in topics related to women’s mental health.  

We work with clinical researchers across Texas Children’s Hospital, Baylor College of Medicine, and other academic institutions and community partners to collaborate on projects that will advance the field.  

Recent collaborations include shared projects with reproductive endocrinologists, pediatric surgeons, pediatric cardiologists, adolescent gynecologists, neonatologists, lactation consultants, and menopause experts.

The infrastructure for the Women’s Mental Health Research Program is provided by Texas Children’s Hospital’s (TCH) Clinical Research Center and BCM's Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology research resources.  

• Infertility and recurrent pregnancy loss     
• Fetal Center and genetic counseling
  • Maternal psychological well-being associated with high-risk pregnancies requiring fetal interventions 
• Mental health in pregnancy
  • Prevalence and treatment of mood and anxiety disorders in pregnant women requiring extended hospitalizations
  • The role of music therapy in pregnant women  
• Psychiatric medication management
  • Safety and efficacy of medication interventions in the treatment and prevention of perinatal mental health conditions 
• Postpartum care
  • Effectiveness of community mental health interventions in the postpartum period
  • Prevention of severe postpartum psychiatric disorders
  • Understanding postpartum neurohormonal conditions such as Dysphoric Milk Ejection Reflex (DMER)
  • Characterizing mental health needs of mothers with infants with congenital heart disease 
• NICU care
  • Innovations in accessing mental health support for NICU parents 
• Perimenopause and menopause
  • Assessment and treatment of mood, cognitive and sleep conditions during the menopause transition
• Perinatal mental health education
  • Using a standardized medical education curriculum to teach perinatal mental health to obstetric clinicians 

Our clinical research occurs across inpatient maternal and pediatric units, outpatient clinics and throughout the community where health care for women takes place.

The primary affiliated clinical site is the The Women’s Place: Center for Reproductive Psychiatry at Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women. The Women’s Place includes a team of faculty and staff focused on women’s mental health including:

• 5 board-certified reproductive psychiatrists (MD/DO)
• 3 reproductive psychologists (PhD)
• 1 licensed clinical social worker
• 2 RNs with training in both obstetric and psychiatric nursing
• 1 research coordinator  
• 12 trainees per year ranging from Medical Student MS3 to Fellow R2  

About The Women's Place: Center for Reproductive Psychiatry

The Women’s Place: Center for Reproductive Psychiatry is one of the largest clinics in the United States dedicated exclusively to the care and treatment of women’s reproductive mental health conditions across the reproductive lifespan. The Center has approximately 7,000 completed patient visits per year.  

We work collaboratively with other specialists throughout Baylor College of Medicine to better understand and improve women’s mental health issues related to every phase of the reproductive cycle – and the impact on their children and families.  

With decades of clinical expertise in psychiatry and OB/GYN, we are uniquely poised to identify where research falls short in helping us understand how to improve mental health in women, particularly during reproductive transitions.   

The Women’s Mental Health Research Program Faculty and Staff

• Director: Nicole Cirino, M.D.
• Associate Director: Alison Goulding, M.D., MPH, MSCR
• Research Coordinator: Myriam Ibarra, MPH
• TCH Scientific Grant Writer/ Research Program Manager: Alecia Biel, Ph.D.
• Clinical Researchers: Megan Howard, M.D., MPH and Teni Davoudian, Ph.D.