Best Books About Postpartum Depression

While giving birth can be filled with joy, there is also a reality of adjusting to the emotional, physical, and, some might argue, spiritual changes that occur postpartum. These changes can be devastating when postpartum depression(PPD) rears its head. Women are often faced with shame and silence about experiencing PPD and the complicated array of emotions that childbirth has. Books on postpartum depression aim to break the silence on this common and treatable topic so that women can be armed with the knowledge they need to begin working through PPD, seek help, and mobilize the support of the people closest to them.

The Best Books About Postpartum Depression

These first three books offer a holistic look at emotions that women experience postpartum, PPD, and how women can take control of their healing. These books provide comprehensive guides, stories from other women who have been through the experience of PPD and hope for mothers who experience the disorder.

1: The Mother-to-Mother Postpartum Depression Support Book: Real Stories from Women Who Lived Through It and Recovered

This book holds a collection of stories from mothers about their experiences with postpartum depression and how they worked through it. After her battle with PPD, Sandra Poulin sought the stories of other women from all walks of life who also experienced the throes of the disorder. The stories they share are relatable, empowering, and inspiring.

2. What No One Tells You: A Guide to Your Emotions from Pregnancy to Motherhood

Postpartum depression is often accompanied by a range of emotional experiences after the drastic hormonal, biochemical, and other changes that come with giving birth. What No One Tells You offers a helpful guide from top reproductive psychiatrists on what emotions to expect during the entire perinatal experience and how to deal with them. It normalizes the emotional experiences of women who deal with postpartum depression and all the other emotions that come with giving birth.

3. This Isn’t What I Expected: Overcoming Postpartum Depression

If you’re looking for a comprehensive self-help guide to understanding PPD at each disorder phase, this book is for you. It is a guide that can be used with therapy or even in a support group. The book covers a wide range of essential topics like how to garner support from your partner, friends, and family through this difficult time and seek and evaluate treatment options.

Best Books About Postpartum Mood and Anxiety Disorders

Women who experience postpartum may also face anxiety, stress, and other emotions accompanying the drastic hormonal shifts after birth. These books discuss the gamut of postpartum mood disorders and provide practical tips for addressing them. Whether you’re seeking alternative treatments, therapy-based solutions, or medication, there is something for everyone on this list.

4. Good Moms Have Bad Days: Understanding Postpartum Mood Disorders

It’s easy to feel like a “bad mom” when experiencing PPD. Your mood can go from anxious to sad to simply exhausted, and you may not feel up to the duties of motherhood or even resent them. Good Moms Have Bad Days normalizes all these feelings by giving mothers and their families the tools they need to understand what is happening in their postpartum bodies and minds.

5. The Pregnancy and Postpartum Anxiety Workbook: Practical Skills to Help You Overcome Anxiety, Worry, Panic Attacks, Obsessions, and Compulsions

Anxiety is a common pre and postpartum experience, and it is also treatable. This workbook uses cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to help women uncover evidenced-based skills to control their panic, worry, and anxiety. A bonus in this workbook is the chapter that offers advice to fathers on ways to support their partners through this journey.

6. The Postpartum Depression Workbook: Strategies to Overcome Negative Thoughts, Calm Stress, and Improve Your Mood

Similar to the anxiety workbook above, this workbook offers CBT strategies for coping with and overcoming PPD. The workbook discusses real-life scenarios, helpful advice, and interactive exercises for women experiencing PPD. It even includes information about common causes, risk factors, and how PPD can impact others.

7. Beyond the Blues: Understanding and Treating Prenatal and Postpartum Depression & Anxiety

Postpartum depression can sometimes benefit from medication, and Beyond The Blues seeks to provide resources for women considering this route. It covers prevention, treatment, and research about medication that could help. With empathy and compassion, this book can empower women for a conversation with their medical provider regarding this treatment option.

Best Books for Postpartum Well-Being

This list wouldn’t be complete without books that support holistic postpartum well-being. Facing postpartum depression is challenging, but these books address preventative and postpartum options for mothers to look after themselves. They offer unique, creative, and mindfulness-based solutions to caring for yourself after delivering a child.

8. Not Your Mother’s Postpartum Book: Normalizing Post-Baby Mental Health Struggles, Navigating #MOMLife, and Finding Strength Amid the Chaos

With a bit of humor, interactive drawing, and journaling, the authors of this postpartum book offer insight into the woes of life after giving birth and how to tackle these issues head-on. Whether you or someone you love is struggling with postpartum guilt, burnout, a baby in NICU, intimacy with a partner, or PPD, this book has something for everyone.

9. The Fourth Trimester: A Postpartum Guide to Healing Your Body, Balancing Your Emotions, and Restoring Your Vitality

So often, women begin the postpartum journey after experiencing symptoms of PPD, but this book offers solutions to set yourself up for successful healing. The Fourth Trimester supports the “physical, emotional, relational, and spiritual levels” of postpartum life. The author’s experience as a postpartum consultant, doula, bodyworker, and yoga teacher shines through in these pages. One reviewer said, “I expected it to help me prepare for my postpartum recovery, but I didn’t realize how much it would shape my whole approach to mothering, caring for myself, and nurturing my relationships.”

10. Breathe, Mama, Breathe: 5-Minute Mindfulness for Busy Moms

Whether you’re a new mom or a seasoned in motherhood, the busyness of postpartum life can make it difficult to find a moment to yourself. Psychotherapist Shonda Moralis offers a guide that shows mothers how to squeeze in 5 minutes for daily meditation and the amazing benefits of it. She even gives tips for finding mindful moments throughout the day.

Best Postpartum Memoirs

Reading about another woman’s postpartum experience can be enlightening and comforting as you learn you’re not alone in your struggle. These courageous memoirs provide raw, honest, and relatable stories of women’s experiences with postpartum depression, psychosis, and devastation from the physical changes. Each offers a diverse perspective on the universal experience of women with PPD.

11. Day Nine: A Postpartum Depression Memoir

Only nine days after giving birth to her daughter, Amanda Munday was involuntarily admitted into the psychiatric ward. Her postpartum depression had become so severe she remained there for 18 days. Her memoir courageously unveils the emotional upheaval women experience after giving birth, destigmatizes postpartum mental illness, and unravels the disconnect between mind and body care in the modern health system.

12. Body Full of Stars: Female Rage and My Passage into Motherhood

A beautiful memoir that touches on the unspoken aspects that many women experience after giving birth: unexpected health issues and the emotional volatility that understandably follows. The author’s own experience highlights the need for women to reconnect with their bodies and the importance of this for the relationships they hold dear. If you are looking for an empowering book for mothers who have just given birth, this is it.

13. Inferno: A Memoir of Motherhood and Madness

Finding herself in a psychiatric ward three months after giving birth to her son, Catherine Cho opened her journal and began piecing together her life. The resulting book reveals the powerful truths she discovered about psychosis, motherhood, and connection to others. While a devastating experience, the universal experiences she gains and shares will inspire any mother who has experienced “madness.”

Best Books About Depression During Pregnancy

While postpartum depression is fairly well-known, some women experience less-talked-about depression during pregnancy. The shame many women feel during this time can lead them to further disengage from sharing their struggles with others. The books below offer relatable prevention, treatment, and compassion for mothers experiencing depression before their child is born.

14. Expecting Mindfully: Nourish Your Emotional Well-Being and Prevent Depression during Pregnancy and Postpartum

This book dives into mindful preventative measures women can take before and after giving birth that will reduce the experience or likelihood of depression prenatally and postpartum. The authors are leading experts on pregnancy and parental challenges that are emotional and offer a mindfulness CBT approach to these challenges.

15. Pregnancy Blues: What Every Woman Needs to Know about Depression During Pregnancy

The title speaks for itself, but this book unveils what often goes unspoken about depression during pregnancy. Dr. Shaila Kulkarni Misri looks at the biological and social factors that can contribute to this treatable disorder and shows women ways to begin to lift the cloak of depression during pregnancy or prevent it. There are details about how depression can manifest into physical symptoms and even tips on alternative treatments mothers can choose.

16. The Pregnancy Workbook: Manage Anxiety and Worry with CBT and Mindfulness Techniques

Women who experience anxiety during pregnancy can attest that it is often an unexpected experience. This workbook guides expecting mothers through the harsher moments of pregnancy and even parenthood. It is an easy-to-follow guide to work through anxiety with evidenced-based CBT skills for new mothers, experienced mothers, and those supporting them.

Postpartum for Dads and Partners

Dads, partners, husbands, and companions supporting women through postpartum depression can often feel helpless in the face of the disorder. Most resources, understandably, go toward helping mothers through these tumultuous times. These books provide guides to help men and partners understand, cope with and support their partners through PPD.

17. The Postpartum Husband: Practical Solutions for Living with Postpartum Depression

The Postpartum Husband offers a simple, easy-to-read solution to guide husbands through their wife’s experiences and how they can be most supportive. While the book says it’s for husbands, it can be used by any person supporting their loved one through PPD.

18. After the Stork: The Couple’s Guide to Preventing and Overcoming Postpartum Depression 

Sleep deprivation, financial tensions, and stress are common postpartum experiences that can exacerbate postpartum depression. Dr. Sara Rosenquist presents a wonderfully-written guide for couples traversing the unchartered waters of PPD and wanting to learn tools to address these common pitfalls. It manages how to navigate intimacy and connection in a relationship impacted by PPD.

19. The Birth Partner 5th Edition: A Complete Guide to Childbirth for Dads, Partners, Doulas, and Other Labor Companions

Understanding the complicated nature of pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum care is a beautiful way for dads, partners, and other labor companions to grasp the many changes a “birthing person” is experiencing during this time. These changes can make conditions like PPD make much more sense to the new father, partner, or companion and enable their support through these trying times.

Continuing Your Postpartum Depression Journey Through Therapy

Postpartum depression is a severe disorder but treatable. While these books can be great resources, they’re not a replacement for professional help. If you or a loved one is experiencing symptoms or wants to take measures to prevent PPD, we offer the best online therapy for depression options and an online therapist directory where you can begin your journey to receiving professional help and find a therapist that is right for helping you or your loved one through postpartum depression.