Revised for the seventh edition, and called a “gem” by Mothering magazine, our book has sold over 30,000 copies to date and now is available in a convenient e-book format. This is a practical guide for mothers who are experiencing postpartum depression and anxiety. The book is based on the experiences of thousands of women and describes what has helped them get through this difficult time.

From the foreword:
For women experiencing postpartum depression this Self-Help Guide is an essential first line aid. Before being offered counselling and medication, a woman with postpartum depression needs to know that she has not been struck by some unnameable, dark and irrational unhappiness just when she expected she would be enjoying one of the happiest experiences of her life. She has a well-known condition, the condition affects many others, it has universal features and universal causes, and there is help available for it. She is not alone.
The Self-Help Guide immediately helps to lift the burden of shame that afflicts a new mother with postpartum depression, the shame which is a hallmark of this experience and one of its first signs. “I have a beautiful baby and a wonderful husband, and I feel there must be something wrong with me if I can’t be more happy,” is the usual formulation of that shame. The very hearing of it should alert the health professional or friend to offer this guide. On opening it, the depressed mother will immediately find herself facing information and insight, empathetically presented, that provide a map both to her current troubled thoughts and feelings and to the paths leading back to wholeness and health. It is indispensable also to the father who himself is often bewildered and who has enormous difficulty hearing and understanding his partner’s sense of desperation, fear, and isolation. It is being heard that is the first need of a woman with postpartum depression, and the very first step in the healing process.
This booklet hears attentively and it speaks with compassion and wisdom.
Gabor Maté, m.d.
Family Physician and Writer
Vancouver, British Columbia

From the Introduction:
The idea for this book came from the realization that many
women are suffering from some degree of postpartum depression
and that very few will find access to supportive care while
going through it. Some of our own mothers are only now feeling
safe enough to talk about their experiences and describe how
alone and crazy they felt.
The material in this book is based on over thirty years of counselling
thousands of women with postpartum depression. These
women have willingly shared their experiences with each other,
and together they have explored what has helped them. It is their
knowledge, wisdom, courage and generosity that has made this
book possible. Emphasis has been put on those common threads which run through the experience of postpartum depression. The term “perinatal depression” is being used to describe postpartum depression in many newer research, journals and publications.
It is an umbrella term that better reflects the fact that symptoms
can begin during pregnancy as well as postpartum. In this book
we refer to “postpartum depression”, which fits under the more
general category of “perinatal” symptoms.

As you read, keep in mind that you are going to survive this.
However hopeless you may feel, try to remember that it will end.
Women grow and change as they cope with their depression.
After it is all over, many women say they are glad they went
through the experience. As one woman said, “I never thought I’d
get through it but I did and I feel great. I know much more about
myself. Now I enjoy my baby and I feel peaceful.”