MA H1924

Adds legal definitions for "postpartum psychosis" and "postpartum depression" to Massachusetts mental health law (Chapter 123), specifying symptoms including hallucinations, delusions, severe anxiety, and suicidal thoughts

Requires defendants who gave birth within 12 months prior to a charged crime to undergo mandatory screening for perinatal psychiatric complications, with examinations by reproductive psychiatry experts conducted within 48 hours

Creates a structured outpatient treatment program for defendants with postpartum mental illness, including treatment plans developed with reproductive psychiatry experts and additional services such as parenting assessment and parent-child therapy

Allows resentencing hearings for defendants who suffered from postpartum psychosis or depression that substantially affected their ability to understand their actions or conform to legal requirements, even if insufficient for an insanity defense

Establishes postpartum mental illness as a mitigating circumstance in cases where life imprisonment without parole may be authorized, and requires annual reporting on the forensic conditional release program beginning January 1, 2027