When it happens · 3 min read
Screening yourself during pregnancy
If you've read our page on depression during pregnancy and you're not sure whether it describes you, there's a validated tool for exactly that uncertainty — and you're allowed to use it yourself.
Last updated August 9, 2026
Why this particular tool works in pregnancy
The problem with screening for depression during pregnancy is that the physical symptoms — tiredness, appetite changes, broken sleep — belong to both conditions, so they discriminate nothing. The Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale was built to avoid exactly that trap: it deliberately omits somatic items and asks about mood and thought instead.
Despite the name, it is validated for antenatal use as well as postnatal. ACOG recommends screening during pregnancy as well as after, so if you've never been handed one during a prenatal visit, that's a gap worth closing yourself.
What it asks
Ten questions about the past seven days: whether you've been able to laugh and see the funny side, whether you've looked forward to things with enjoyment, whether you've blamed yourself unnecessarily, felt anxious or worried for no good reason, felt scared or panicky, felt things getting on top of you, had trouble sleeping through unhappiness, felt sad or miserable, been crying, and — the tenth — whether thoughts of harming yourself have occurred. Each scores 0 to 3.
Reading the result honestly
In common practice a score around 10 or above prompts further evaluation, and any positive answer on the self-harm question matters immediately regardless of the total. But hold it loosely in both directions. A high score doesn't diagnose you; it identifies who should have a conversation. A modest score while you're quietly struggling doesn't cancel that out — symptoms that persist for two weeks or interfere with your days earn the conversation at any score.
It's also worth repeating rather than doing once: mood at 12 weeks and mood at 34 weeks are different questions, and screening at several points across pregnancy catches more than a single snapshot.
What to do with it
Take the result to your OB, midwife, or GP, in plain words: "I scored X on the Edinburgh scale and I'd like to talk about it." That sentence, with evidence behind it, is often what converts a vague sense of struggling into an actual referral. What it shouldn't do is go in a drawer.
Common questions
- Can I really screen myself?
- Yes — the scale is publicly available and self-administration is common. The one rule is that a concerning result goes to a professional rather than staying private.
- What if I score low but still feel awful?
- Trust your experience over the number. The tool exists to catch people who might otherwise be missed, not to disqualify anyone who asks for help.
- Does it work for anxiety too?
- Several items touch anxiety and it will often flag it, but it's a depression screen at heart. If anxiety is your main experience, say so directly — it's assessed differently and treated effectively.
If it's this, not that
Still not sure
This page is the general answer. Yours is a specific child.
The advisor can be. It has read everything here, and it knows how old your children actually are — which is the whole difference wherever guidance changes with age. Ask it anything.
- She's got a temperature of 100. Is that something to worry about?
- He's obsessed with space and galaxies — what toys are worth getting him?
Free. It comes with the note.
It answers from the same cited pages you are reading, and when the question is where to go, from the real clinician, hospital and childcare records behind this site — not a link to go search them yourself. It says so when we have not written about something, and it is not a doctor; for anything urgent it gives you the threshold and tells you to call.
Where this comes from
- Using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale to screen for antenatal depressionMGH Center for Women's Mental Health
- Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS)AAP
Every claim on this page traces to one of these. See every source we use →
Written from the sources named above, and it is not a substitute for your own doctor. If something feels wrong to you, that instinct is a good enough reason to call — you know yourself and this family better than any page does.