Maternal Mental Health

Motherhood changes everything—your body, your sleep, your relationships, and yes, your mental health too. For many moms, those changes feel overwhelming, scary, or just plain not like themselves. That’s where PMADs—Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders—come in.

What Does PMAD Mean?

PMAD stands for Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders. Perinatal is the time during pregnancy and up to a year postpartum. Mood and Anxiety Disorders are a group of mental health conditions including depression, anxiety, OCD, PTSD, and (rarely) psychosis. If you’ve heard the term postpartum depression, that’s part of it—but it’s not the whole story. PMADs can start in pregnancy, or show up months after birth.