These are the statements I am supposed to mark with a number, from 0-3, to indicate their frequency. My eyes scan the list, and I click my pen anxiously as I decide what to do. I am glad they are asking these questions, glad that someone has acknowledged the emotional turmoil that comes with giving birth.
But the statements listed don’t match what I am feeling. I am experiencing symptoms that aren’t on this questionnaire. And that scares me.
The is a screening tool each new mother in America is supposed to receive around six weeks after giving birth. While it can be a helpful resource for indicating the ever-common postpartum anxiety and depression, I soon learned that other physiological symptoms can impact new motherhood — symptoms I had never heard of before and that are left largely unscreened. So, on this day, six weeks after giving birth to my daughter, I write nothing on the questionnaire and turn it in.
I am aware of the roller coaster of hormones that accompany the postpartum period, but I don’t anticipate them. My pregnancy is uneventful. No mood swings or medical concerns.
My daughter is born on a sunny morning in late August with a cool breeze blowing through the window at the community hospital. Exhausted with tear-streaked faces, my husband and I gaze lovingly at this marvelous being we have created. She was later than her due date (firstborns often are) but came out tiny and shrieking, a firecracker in our peaceful little world.
The nurses show me how t.