Are we overpathologising motherhood?

Current estimates of the prevalence of perinatal distress, and of women with risks, are an overestimation of the true rates. The clinical practice of using the presence of a single risk factor, or a single high score on a self-report mood scale, to form part of the assessment to determine whether or not to actively intervene may also overpathologise the situation. A more thorough understanding of these issues will improve our assessment procedures so that resources can be appropriately targeted to those women, and their families, who really need specialist mental health intervention.