Good Moms Have Scary Thoughts: A Healing Guide to the Secret Fears of New Mothers

by Karen Kleiman, Molly McIntyre (Illustrator)

Overview

An August 2023 Washington Post article reported that "one in five new mothers in the U.S. suffers from mood and anxiety disorders during pregnancy and up to a year after giving birth—about 800,000 mothers yearly." Yet studies show that a large majority of women who suffer from maternal mental health disorders aren’t able to get help. Good Moms Have Scary Thoughts is the help mothers need. 

What if I drop him? What if I snap and hurt my baby? Mothering is so hard—I don't know if I really want to do this anymore. Gosh, I'm so terrible for thinking that! For too many mothers, these thoughts remain secret, hidden in a place of shame that can quickly grow into anxiety, postpartum depression, and even self-harm. But here's the good news: you CAN feel better!

Author Karen Kleiman—coauthor of the seminal book This Isn't What I Expected and founder of the acclaimed Postpartum Stress Center—comes to the aid of new mothers everywhere with a groundbreaking new source of hope, compassion, and expert help. Good Moms Have Scary Thoughts is packed with world-class guidance, simple exercises, and nearly 50 stigma-busting cartoons from the viral #speakthesecret campaign that help new moms validate their feelings, share their fears, and start feeling better. Lighthearted yet serious, warm yet not sugary, and perfectly portioned for busy moms with full plates, Good Moms Have Scary Thoughts is the go-to resource for moms, partners, and families everywhere who need help with this difficult period. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781641701303
Publisher:	Familius
Publication date:	03/01/2019
Pages:	160
Sales rank:	21,363
Product dimensions:	7.10(w) x 7.10(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Karen Kleiman is a well-known international maternal mental-health expert with over thirty-five years of experience as a psychotherapist, teacher, and writer. As an advocate and author of several groundbreaking books on postpartum depression and anxiety, her pioneering work has influenced personal and professional populations within the perinatal mental health community for decades. In 1988, Karen founded The Postpartum Stress Center, a treatment and training facility for prenatal and postpartum depression/anxiety disorders where she treats individuals and couples.

Molly McIntyre is an artist, illustrator, and animator living in Brooklyn, New York, with her family. Her work has been featured in the upcoming Netflix series Worn Stories, the book Good Moms Have Scary Thoughts (Karen Kleiman, Familius), Bitch magazine, Everyday Feminism, Scary Mommy, and Psychology Today, and shown in exhibitions throughout the US and in Japan. 

 

What People are Saying About This

co-founder of The Motherhood Center of New York - Catherine Birndorf

This brilliant little book is chock-full of truths about the common realities of new motherhood. Once again, Kleiman says what we are all thinking—and too scared to say out loud. With comic relief, she puts it all out there!

MD co-founder of The Motherhood Center of New York Catherine Birndorf

This brilliant little book is chock-full of truths about the common realities of new motherhood. Once again, Kleiman says what we are all thinking—and too scared to say out loud. With comic relief, she puts it all out there!

MD co-founder of The Motherhood Center of New York Catherine Birndorff

This brilliant little book is chock-full of truths about the common realities of new motherhood. Once again, Kleiman says what we are all thinking—and too scared to say out loud. With comic relief, she puts it all out there!

Diana Barnes

“Learning about important subjects doesn’t always have to come in a textbook! Karen Kleiman has done it again. A powerful and relevant book to inform, to enlighten, and to treasure. This book should be read by every new mother, everyone who loves her, and every single healthcare provider.”

Editorial Reviews

With humor and honesty, this illustrated self-help guide for new mothers offers an alternative to the earnestness of more traditional books on the subject. Eschewing the typical advice and information about baby care, the comics and information are entirely devoted to the experiences of women who have recently given birth. Difficult topics such as postpartum depression, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorder get frank discussion, and the tone is reassuring without diminishing the potential seriousness of these issues. The illustrations are sunny and relatable, depicting women of diverse ethnicities and body types. The format is especially effective in conveying, through speech and thought balloons, the differences between what new mothers might say and what they are really feeling. However, the visuals also highlight the book’s narrow vision of who new parents are: the partners of new mothers are depicted as masculine, and all the pregnant people in the book are cisgender women. There is a helpful resource section of therapist listings, advocacy groups, recommendations for other books, and crisis hotlines, but a table of contents and index would have been helpful for those seeking information about specific issues. New mothers will find this work a reassuring companion in a challenging time. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

"This brilliant little book is chock-full of truths about the common realities of new motherhood. Once again, Kleiman says what we are all thinking—and too scared to say out loud. With comic relief, she puts it all out there!"

- Catherine Birndorf, MD co-founder of The Motherhood Center of New York

"Learning about important subjects doesn’t always have to come in a textbook! Karen Kleiman has done it again. A powerful and relevant book to inform, to enlighten, and to treasure. This book should be read by every new mother, everyone who loves her, and every single healthcare provider."
- Diana Barnes, PsyD, editor of Women’s Reproductive Mental Health Across the Lifespan
 
"With humor and honesty, this illustrated self-help guide for new mothers offers an alternative to the earnestness of more traditional books on the subject. Eschewing the typical advice and information about baby care, the comics and information are entirely devoted to the experiences of women who have recently given birth. Difficult topics such as postpartum depression, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorder get frank discussion, and the tone is reassuring without diminishing the potential seriousness of these issues. The illustrations are sunny and relatable, depicting women of diverse ethnicities and body types. The format is especially effective in conveying, through speech and thought balloons, the differences between what new mothers might say and what they are really feeling... New mothers will find this work a reassuring companion in a challenging time. (Mar.)"
- Publishers Weekly
 
"Illustrated and inspirational, Good Moms Have Scary Thoughts takes a conversational yet serious graphic novel approach to helping mothers cope with their darkest mothering moments. Karen Kleiman, co-author of This Isn’t What I Expected, writes with the most empathetic of pens, and the winning illustrations of Molly McIntyre convey a fantastic amount of data and emotion in this flawless project."
- Matt Sutherland, Foreword Reviews

"...a brilliant guide for new moms."
-BookPage
 

 "a gold standard in terms of normalizing conversations around the intrusive thoughts that so often come along with new motherhood."—Paige Bellenbaum, Romper.com

From the Publisher

Illustrated and inspirational, Good Moms Have Scary Thoughts takes a conversational yet serious graphic novel approach to helping mothers cope with their darkest mothering moments. Karen Kleiman, co-author of This Isn’t What I Expected, writes with the most empathetic of pens, and the winning illustrations of Molly McIntyre convey a fantastic amount of data and emotion in this flawless project.

Foreword Reviews Matt Sutherland

Learning about important subjects doesn’t always have to come in a textbook! Karen Kleiman has done it again. A powerful and relevant book to inform, to enlighten, and to treasure. This book should be read by every new mother, everyone who loves her, and every single healthcare provider.”

Diana Barnes

This brilliant little book is chock-full of truths about the common realities of new motherhood. Once again, Kleiman says what we are all thinking—and too scared to say out loud. With comic relief, she puts it all out there!

MD co-founder of The Motherhood Center of New York Catherine Birndorf

Illustrated and inspirational, Good Moms Have Scary Thoughts takes a conversational yet serious graphic novel approach to helping mothers cope with their darkest mothering moments. Karen Kleiman, co-author of This Isn’t What I Expected, writes with the most empathetic of pens, and the winning illustrations of Molly McIntyre convey a fantastic amount of data and emotion in this flawless project.

Matt Sutherland (May/June 2019) - Foreword Reviews