Please read on to pinpoint when you or a woman close to you will begin to see signs of a perinatal mood and/or anxiety disorder.

• When two lines appear on the pregnancy test
• When pregnancy is unexpected
• When pregnancy is finally achieved
• When pregnancy is not achieved
• When the mother loses the baby
• When the mother chooses not to have the baby
• When the adoption falls through
• When the drastic changes in lifestyle that having a baby will induce begin to occur:
  • nausea
  • extreme exhaustion
  • no more wine with dinner or beer after a rough day
  • limited mobility

• When the hormones at flux in the pregnant body affect thought processes
  • heightened anxiety at the amazing responsibility of growing and then caring for a baby
  • fear of the unknown or varied outcomes of gestation, labor, delivery, and aftercare
  • ambivalence over the new self the mother must create or become
  • mourning the loss of the former self

• When medication regimens must be altered due to unknown effects of routine prescriptions on the fetus
• When mother worries and feels guilty about continuing medication and its effects on fetus
• When mother suffers a loss during pregnancy
  

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  • death of a loved one
  • separation from partner

• When the mother has no partner or support person

• When a drastic transition occurs during pregnancy
  • moving homes and/or locations
  • away from support network
  • loss of own or partner’s employment

• When labor and/or delivery does not go as planned or expected
• Traumatic labor and/or delivery
  • physical trauma
  • emotional or psychological trauma

• Complicated recovery from labor and/or delivery
  • infection
  • injury

• When adoption is complete

• Unexpected medical condition in infant
• Loss of infant

• Difficulty feeding infant
  • breastfeeding
  • colic
  • reflux
  • allergies
  • tongue tied

• Extreme fatigue recovering from labor and caring for newborn around the clock
• No routine
• No schedule
• No down time – constantly being needed, touched, suckled
• Disappointment at real life not matching imagined version of motherhood
• Hormones further thrown into flux after baby-growing part of process complete
• Stress
• Too much interference and advice from others
• Not enough support and help from others
• Isolation
• Weaning child from breast (days, weeks, years after birth)
• Being sole caregiver for a fragile, totally dependent being

After reading this list, it should be an incredibly simple and precise process to pinpoint exactly when you or a woman close to you will exhibit signs of a perinatal mood disorder. Diagnosing and treating it should be even simpler. And recovery? Piece of cake.

Hopefully it is quite obvious that the way I’ve chosen to frame this list is tongue in cheek. The individual items on the list are anything but. They are varied; some mutually exclusive and many overlapping – to show that there is no one road map for predicting, preventing, diagnosing, or treating perinatal mood disorders. Perinatal mood disorders come in many different forms with many different time lines. The one surefire tool to helping yourself or a woman close to you who is suffering is awareness. Awareness of the myriad possible causes and many symptoms that can present. And then reaching out.

To her. To your physician. Midwife. OB. GYN. Pediatrician. Counselor. Therapist. Psychologist. Psychiatrist. Friend. Mother. Partner. Neighbor.

With an illness this insidious, multi-faceted, and far-reaching, silence is not an option. The lives of our mothers, babies, and families depend upon it.