Postpartum Stress Syndrome: What You Need to Know

glamour.com:

that can impact new moms. The hallmark symptoms of PPD: overwhelming sadness, feelings of hopelessness, worthlessness, and low self-esteem.

But what you might not know is that new moms can experience PPD-like symptoms without actually having the disorder.It’s something that’s known as postpartum stress syndrome.

It’s a term that Karen Kleiman, L.C.S.W., director of the and author of The Art of Holding in Therapy: An Essential Intervention for Postpartum Depression and Anxiety, coined to describe women who fall somewhere between suffering from the "baby blues" and an actual diagnosis of postpartum depression or postpartum anxiety, a condition that can cause women to feel constantly anxious to the point where it interferes with their lives.

Women who suffer from postpartum stress syndrome have huge feelings of self-doubt mixed with an intense desire to be a perfect mom, Kleiman explains—and they can feel seriously stressed out as a result.Postpartum stress syndrome is a step below postpartum depression and postpartum anxiety in terms of severity. “While postpartum stress syndrome can create feelings of anxiety that are unsettling, these feelings do not impede her ability to function or get through the day,” Kleiman says.