The Perinatal Patient: A Compassionate Approach to Treating Postpartum Depression, Anxiety, and Related Disorders

Caught between worrying about how she feels and desperately working to portray the image of a good mother, a perfect mother, a mother who knows what’s she’s doing, the postpartum woman in distress is more likely to choose silence or minimization over disclosure.

She will allow her suffering—her dark mood, scary intrusive thoughts, intense anxiety, excessive monitoring of the baby, feelings of inadequacy, grief over lost independence, thoughts of har...