Postpartum Husband

By: Karen Kleiman

Narrated by: Sharon Eisenhour

Length: 1 hr and 37 mins

Publisher's Summary

For too many families, the postpartum period brings unexpected pain and devastation when depression enters the picture. The anticipated joy and pleasure of parenthood is replaced with feelings of fear, sadness, anger, confusion and resentment.  Research has shown that supportive relationships during postpartum depression treatment is associated with a reduction in depressive symptoms.  When partners have the right information, they will not only gain a better understanding of the illness and its impact, they will also feel better themselves.

The Postpartum Husband offers information and support with its handy reference-style format and addresses specific questions that may arise throughout the course of the illness.  

©2009 Karen Kleiman (P)2009 Spoken Books Publishing

This book was extremely helpful!

Any additional comments?

If you are a dad whose spouse suffers from PPD, I recommend this book wholeheartedly as a starting point in your search for PPD support. Some reviewers mentioned this book is nothing more than a list of bullet points. While there are short chapters and bullet points everywhere, I found this book had many insightful suggestions. Almost all of the bullet points has several sentences. Personally, I think they could have just removed them and help make the flow a little better; the bullet points do make it easy to find information in bite-sized chunks. This book was very helpful as a dad whose spouse is suffering from PPD. There are many practical suggestions as to how and why I should do certain things. While I have yet to practice many of the ideas listed in this book, I feel like I better understand.

Good, concise advice

To the point and helpful. It doesn't get bogged down in stories and anecdotes but instead offers concise advice on how you can support your partner and yourself.

Not inclusive but otherwise very good

I'm a childbirth educator and birth doula based in NYC. I've been looking for a book like this for partners, and there seem to be too few. This one is excellent and has practical strategies for partners to support a beloved who is struggling with PPD, but I do wish it would be more inclusive both in using the terms wife and husband but also marriage. I also wish that it would speak to the fact that the moon birthing partner/dad can often also struggle with PPD and other PMADs. I can give it a soft recommendation with these caveats.

Wished I would have known sooner.

It is five years down the road and I wish my husband and I had known sooner what we were both going through. Postpartum depression has eaten away at our marriage. This is a powerful book - I hope it gets to other couples sooner.