ABOUT POSTNATAL DEPRESSION

Diagnosis
A health professional will assess whether a new mother has PND, diagnosing PND only after listening carefully to a new mother describe how she feels, and observing her and her relationship with her baby, partner, and any other children. Sometimes, a diagnosis is made only after a woman has been seen by a health professional several times. PND is usually diagnosed only when a woman has experienced several symptoms, or a particular pattern of symptoms, for at least two weeks.

Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS)
The EPDS is a 10-item questionnaire that was developed by Professor John Cox and colleagues in the UK in 1987. It is used by health professionals worldwide to screen new mothers for symptoms of depression. For each item women are asked to underline which of four possible responses most closely approximates how they have felt over the previous seven days. Each response to each question is then scored. Generally, a new mother who scores over 12 is encouraged to discuss how she feels with a health professional.

EPDS sample item: I have felt sad and miserable	Score
Yes, most of the time	3
Yes, quite often	2
Not very often	1
No, not at all	0