Read this before the numbers

If you need help now, the numbers are here.

Everything below this block is published statistics. This block is not. It is first on the page on purpose: the AAP’s own follow-up guidance treats a positive self-harm answer on a screening instrument as requiring immediate action, and a page about prevalence rates should not make anyone scroll past four tables to reach a phone number.

988 Suicide & Crisis LifelineCall or text 988For a suicidal crisis, in the United States. National Maternal Mental Health HotlineCall or text 1-833-TLC-MAMA (1-833-852-6262)Free, confidential, 24/7, English and Spanish, run by HRSA. It is explicitly for “moms and their families” before, during and after pregnancy — and HRSA states plainly that it “is not a ‘crisis line.’” Postpartum Support International HelpLineCall or text 1-800-944-4773 (press 2 for English, 1 for Español)PSI runs a dedicated dads support group, a peer mentor programme and dads with lived experience. PSI states the HelpLine is not a crisis hotline, does not handle emergencies, and returns calls and texts within business hours, 8am–11pm EST.

Where this page sits. It restates published figures, each quoted from the document that publishes it. It is not a screening service, it carries no score and no threshold verdict, it does not diagnose anything, and it is not clinically reviewed — see our editorial standards. The screening instrument itself is deliberately not reproduced here.

Free guide for dads

Postpartum depression in dads: the numbers, and where they don’t agree.

The site already says in five places that postpartum depression happens to dads too. This page is where the actual figures live. Four things on this page are not a summary of anything — they are the published numbers themselves, quoted from the document that publishes each one, and the places those documents do not say the same thing: a prevalence figure that ranges from 2% to 50% depending on what is being measured, a screening threshold whose validated cut-off for fathers is not the one the AAP publishes, two peak windows that are not the same window, and one named screening visit for a father against four named for a mother.

Start with the threshold Place your baby’s age

FreeNo accountNothing uploadedNo scoreSourced figures

Disagreement 1 of 4 — how common it is

Six published figures. None of them is measuring the same thing.

This is the table most pages collapse into a single number, and collapsing it is what makes the topic unreadable. A range across studies, a pooled meta-estimate, a rate for one time window, and a figure that only applies if your partner is also affected are four different quantities. All six below are published, and each is quoted in its own words:

Published figure	What it is actually measuring	In the source’s words	Source
2–25%	Range across studies, any time in the first postpartum year	“Fathers also suffer from PPD, with a prevalence rate that varies from 2% to as high as 25%, with an increase to 50% when the mother experiences PPD.”	AAP 2019 policy statement, Pediatrics
10.4%	Pooled point estimate, first trimester to 1 year (95% CI 8.5–12.7%)	“Substantial heterogeneity was observed among rates of paternal depression, with a meta-estimate of 10.4% (95% confidence interval [CI], 8.5%-12.7%).”	Paulson & Bazemore, JAMA 2010 — 43 studies, 28,004 participants
25.6%	Pooled estimate for the 3- to 6-month postpartum window (95% CI 17.3–36.1%) outside the AAP’s own ranged figure	“Higher rates of depression were reported during the 3- to 6-month postpartum period (25.6%; 95% CI, 17.3%-36.1%).”	Paulson & Bazemore, JAMA 2010
50%	When the mother also has postpartum depression — a conditional figure, not a population rate outside the AAP’s own ranged figure	“Fathers also suffer from PPD, with a prevalence rate that varies from 2% to as high as 25%, with an increase to 50% when the mother experiences PPD.”	AAP 2019 policy statement, Pediatrics
one in ten	Dads, stated as a plain fraction	“Studies show one in ten dads experiences postpartum depression, and 5-15% develop a anxiety disorder such as generalized anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder at some point during the pregnancy or the first year postpartum.”	Postpartum Support International — Help for Dads
5–15%	An anxiety disorder rather than depression — a different condition, and the only figure on this page that is not about depression at all	“Studies show one in ten dads experiences postpartum depression, and 5-15% develop a anxiety disorder such as generalized anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder at some point during the pregnancy or the first year postpartum.”	Postpartum Support International — Help for Dads

The AAP’s own published range2–25%The widest published figure on this page. The ratio between its ends is 12.5×, which is why a single sentence “about one in ten dads” is a real published figure and a poor summary of this table at the same time.

Published figures outside that range2Two published figures do not sit inside the AAP’s own stated range, and both are in the table above rather than quietly dropped. One is the 50% figure the AAP itself conditions on the mother having postpartum depression. The other is the 25.6% rate for the 3- to 6-month window — published by the same meta-analysis the AAP’s range draws on, and just above the AAP’s own ceiling of 25%. That is the more interesting of the two: the range and the window rate come from the same body of evidence and do not agree at the top end.

Why the spread is this wide, and why that is not a scandal. These figures differ by what they measure: all paternal depression across a year, depression at one particular postpartum window, and depression conditional on the mother’s. A meta-analysis of 43 studies and 28,004 participants publishes its own pooled figure with a confidence interval, and that paper is explicit that the underlying literature is inconsistent. Reading the range as “the experts can’t agree whether this is common” would be wrong; reading any single one of these as the number would be wrong too.

Disagreement 2 of 4 — the threshold, and the seam nobody states

The AAP publishes a cut-off of 10. The study that validated the instrument for fathers recommends 5/6.

Both of these are published, in the same body of guidance, and they are for the same instrument. The AAP states a threshold of 10 on the EPDS for mothers and, in the same document, reports that the instrument “has now been validated for men as well as women”. The validation study that the AAP cites concluded that screening fathers needs a two-point-lower cut-off, and recommended 5/6. Here is every one of those, quoted:

The number the AAP publishes“The EPDS is completed by the mother, and a score of 10 or greater indicates possible depression.”AAP 2019 policy statement, Pediatrics

And, in the same document, that the instrument is validated for men too“Screening for PPD by using the EPDS has now been validated for men as well as women.”AAP 2019 policy statement, Pediatrics

The validation study’s conclusion for fathers“Screening for depression or anxiety disorders in fathers requires a two point lower cut-off than screening for depression or anxiety in mothers, and we recommend this cut-off to be 5/6.”Matthey, Barnett, Kavanagh & Howie, J Affect Disord 2001

A later pooled review of seven studies“The Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale has acceptable properties for detecting paternal postpartum depression, with cut-off scores ranging from 7 to 10.”Shafian et al., Heliyon 2022 — systematic review and meta-analysis, 7 studies, 2,393 participants

Apply the published adjustment to the published threshold, and see what lands.

This is arithmetic on two published numbers, not a recommendation from this page. The build does it and reports the result:

AAP threshold minus the published adjustment8That is 10 - 2. It is inside the band a later pooled review calls satisfactory, and it is not the cut-off the validation study recommends.

Cut-offs that all three published positions nameNoneNone. There is no cut-off score that the AAP’s stated threshold, the validation study’s paternal recommendation and the pooled review’s satisfactory band all claim at once. The build sweeps every integer from 1 to 15 and asserts this rather than asserting it in prose.

This is why the page will not give you a number to apply to yourself. The three published positions land on 10 (stated for mothers), 5/6 (validated for fathers) and 7–10 (pooled satisfactory band). Arithmetic on the first two gives 8, which is not among them as a validated cut-off for anyone. A spread this wide is a reason to go through a validated screening process with a clinician, not a reason to score yourself from a web page — and it is also a fair explanation for why a father who looked up “what score means depression” would get three different answers from three authoritative documents.

And a published caution on screening generally, from the same AAP statement: “It should be noted that screening is not diagnostic. A positive screen result indicates a risk that depression is present, and the purpose of referral is to clarify the diagnosis and offer the indicated treatment.” This page reproduces no instrument and offers no screen.

Disagreement 3 of 4 — when it peaks

Two published curves, and they are not the same curve.

This is the part that most often gets missed, because the maternal timeline is the one everyone knows. Published as each source publishes it:

Whose curve	Published peak	Stated as	In the source’s words	Source
Mother	6 weeks	Major depression peaks at 6 weeks postpartum	“Minor depression peaks at 2 to 3 months postpartum, and the peak for major depression is at 6 weeks postpartum. There is another peak for depression at 6 months postpartum.”	AAP 2019 policy statement
Mother	6 months	A further published peak at 6 months postpartum	“There is another peak for depression at 6 months postpartum.”	AAP 2019 policy statement
Father	3–6 months	Highest published rates at 3 to 6 months postpartum	“Higher rates of depression were reported during the 3- to 6-month postpartum period (25.6%; 95% CI, 17.3%-36.1%).”	Paulson & Bazemore, JAMA 2010

Maternal major depression peak6 weeksPublished by the AAP. That is 42.0 days, or about 1.381 months.

Paternal peak window begins3 monthsThe JAMA meta-analysis publishes its highest rate in the 3–6 month window. Measured against the maternal peak, that window opens about 1.619 months (49.3 days) later.

And the direction of travel is different too. Walsh et al. publish that paternal depression “decreases in the period shortly after childbirth then increases over the first postpartum year”, and report “as much as a 68% increase in depressive symptoms in the 5 years after entrance into fatherhood compared with nonfathers”. The maternal and paternal curves are published as rising at different times, which is the practical reason a father who was fine in the first fortnight is not thereby clear by that published pattern — and why the visit he is most likely to be screened at is the last one on the list.

Disagreement 4 of 4 — who actually gets screened

Four visits named for a mother. One, phrased as something to consider, for a father.

The AAP names four well-child visits for maternal screening and one for the partner. That is not this page’s characterisation of the guidance — it is what the guidance says, and the page quotes it below in full, alongside a call to action published in the same journal arguing that it does not go far enough:

Visit	Maternal screening	Partner
1-month visit	Named for the mother	—
2-month visit	Named for the mother	—
4-month visit	Named for the mother	—
6-month visit	Named for the mother	Also the visit where the AAP says to consider screening the partner

What the AAP names for the mother“On the basis of knowledge regarding peak occurrence times for PPD, routine screening in which a validated screening tool is used should occur at well-infant visits at 1, 2, 4, and 6 months.”AAP 2019 policy statement

What it says about the partner, in full“Pediatricians should be encouraged to consider screening the partner as well at the 6-month visit with the Edinburgh Postpartum Depression Scale (EPDS), either in person if the partner is present or by having the partner fill out the screen at home and mail it back.”AAP 2019 policy statement

And the counter-argument, published in the same journal“The AAP statement acknowledged paternal postpartum depression (PPD) as an established clinical problem yet called for pediatricians to screen solely mothers at the 1-, 2-, 4-, and 6-month well-child visits and “consider screening the partner as well” at the 6-month visit. We believe it is inadequate to treat the recognition and management of paternal depression as extra or optional.”Walsh, Davis & Garfield, Pediatrics 2020 — “A Call to Action: Screening Fathers for Perinatal Depression”

The measurement, so you can check it: the AAP’s named maternal visits are 1-month, 2-month, 4-month, 6-month — four of them. The partner’s named visit is 6-month — one, and it is the last of the mother’s four. The build asserts both facts. If you want to be screened, the 6-month visit is the published point at which the guidance places it.

The part that gets missed

What the published sources say it looks like, in their words.

This page is not going to describe symptoms in its own voice, because the sources are clearer about the failure mode than a summary would be. Each card below is a verbatim quote:

Fathers are less likely to seek help, and less likely to report sadness“Fathers are less likely to seek help. They are more likely to present with symptoms of substance use, domestic violence, and undermining breastfeeding instead of sadness.”AAP 2019 policy statement

The symptom lists are not interchangeable“Although some symptoms are common across maternal and paternal PPD (eg, depressed mood or loss of interest in activities), mothers are more likely to report sadness, and fathers are more likely to present with increased irritability and alcohol and substance use.”Walsh, Davis & Garfield, Pediatrics 2020

There is no father-specific diagnostic criteria set, and no father-specific screening tool“One major issue is that a clear set of diagnostic criteria that is specific to paternal PPD does not exist.”Walsh, Davis & Garfield, Pediatrics 2020

A father who is not depressed is a published protective factor for the child“For example, a father who is not depressed is one protective factor for infants of mothers with depression.”AAP 2019 policy statement

Every named visit and published peak that applies

Place your baby’s age against the published timelines.

Enter the date of birth. The tool works out the age, reports which named well-child visits the published guidance places have passed, states the published maternal peak windows and the published paternal peak window, and tells you whether the one visit the AAP names for the partner has come round yet. It does not screen you, does not score you, does not diagnose anything, and shows the support numbers on every result.

1. Baby’s date of birth

2. Today (defaults to now)

What this tool cannot do. It places dates against published timelines. It cannot tell you whether you or your partner have postpartum depression, cannot interpret a screening score, and cannot clear anyone. If something on this page sounds like your household, the published next step is not a calculator — it is the support numbers at the top of this page or your own care team.

For the fridge

The published timeline on one page.

Every line below is a published point from a cited source — the AAP’s named screening visits, and the peak windows each source publishes. Print it, and put the support numbers on it.

Published screening points and peak windows

Each line names the source it comes from. Nothing here is a diagnosis, a score or a target.

When	What the published guidance places there	Source
1, 2, 4 and 6 months	Screening named for the mother at well-infant visits	AAP 2019
6 months	The one visit where the AAP says to consider screening the partner as well	AAP 2019
6 weeks	Published peak for maternal major depression	AAP 2019
2–3 months	Published peak for maternal minor depression	AAP 2019
3–6 months	Published highest rates for paternal depression	Paulson & Bazemore, JAMA 2010
6 months	A further published maternal peak	AAP 2019
Any time	In a crisis: 988 · Support: 1-800-944-4773 (PSI) · 1-833-TLC-MAMA (HRSA)	—

Questions worth asking at the next visit: has anyone screened me, not just my partner? Which instrument, and what cut-off was used for a father? What is the referral route if the answer is positive?

Quick answers

Questions this page raises.

Each answer restates one of the sources above. Where the sources disagree, the answer says so rather than resolving it.

Can I take this page's word for whether I have postpartum depression?

No, and the page is built so that it cannot be read that way. It restates published figures and published screening recommendations, and it carries no score, no threshold verdict and no diagnosis on any path. The screening instruments themselves are deliberately not reproduced here — the build asserts that the EPDS item text is absent from the page — because a page that prints the questions becomes a self-screen, and a self-screen is not a diagnosis. The AAP states it directly: “screening is not diagnostic. A positive screen result indicates a risk that depression is present.”

My partner has been screened. Does that cover me?

Not on the published guidance, and that is the gap Walsh et al. wrote a call to action about in the same journal as the AAP policy statement. The AAP names screening for the mother at the 1-, 2-, 4- and 6-month well-child visits, and says only that pediatricians “should be encouraged to consider screening the partner as well at the 6-month visit.” So the one visit named for a father is the last of the four named for a mother, and it is phrased as something to consider rather than something to do. If you want to be screened, asking at the 6-month visit is the published point to ask — and asking earlier does not contradict anything above.

Why does this page not just give me one number for how common it is?

Because the published figures are not measuring the same thing, and collapsing them would hide exactly what makes this hard to read. The AAP publishes a 2–25% range across studies. A meta-analysis of 43 studies publishes a pooled 10.4% and a separate 25.6% for the 3- to 6-month window. PSI states it as “one in ten”. The AAP also publishes 50% for fathers when the mother has postpartum depression — a conditional figure, not a population rate. Two of those figures sit outside the AAP's own stated range, and the build asserts which two rather than quietly leaving them out: the 50% conditional figure, and the 25.6% window rate, which is just above the AAP's own ceiling of 25% and comes from the same meta-analysis the AAP's range draws on.

Is the two-point-lower cut-off something I can apply to myself?

No — and this is the part of the page worth reading most carefully, because it is where the published sources genuinely do not line up. Matthey et al. validated the EPDS for men and concluded fathers need a two-point lower cut-off, recommending 5/6. The AAP publishes a threshold of 10 on the same instrument, for mothers, and in the same document reports that the instrument has been validated for men too. Subtracting the published adjustment from the published threshold gives 8, which is not the cut-off Matthey validated and is not a number the AAP states for fathers. A third review pools seven studies and calls 7–10 satisfactory. That spread is real. It is a reason to be screened by someone with a validated process, not a reason to score yourself.

Does it pass on its own?

The published picture is that paternal depression behaves differently from maternal depression in timing. The AAP publishes that maternal major depression peaks at 6 weeks postpartum, with a further peak at 6 months. The JAMA meta-analysis publishes that paternal depression is highest in the 3- to 6-month window. Walsh et al. publish that paternal depression decreases in the period shortly after childbirth and then increases over the first postpartum year. A father who felt fine in the first weeks, at the point where everyone was asking how his partner was, is not thereby in the clear by that published pattern.

Why is there a crisis number at the top of a page about statistics?

Because the escalation resource should never be something you have to find. The AAP's own follow-up guidance treats a positive answer to the self-harm item on the EPDS as requiring immediate action, and the page should not make someone scroll past four tables to reach a phone number. The block is asserted to render before every prevalence section in document order, and the reporter emits it on every path — which is verified by driving the tool, not by assuming it.

Where does DadYolked stand on this?

This page is general information restated from the sources listed on it, and it is not medical advice, not a screening service and not clinically reviewed. See our editorial standards: a page is not described as medically reviewed unless a qualified reviewer and a review date are displayed, and this one displays neither.

Sources

Where every claim on this page comes from.

Every figure above is a restatement of one of these, and every quoted sentence is quoted in the card that carries it.

AAP, Pediatrics 2019 — Incorporating Recognition and Management of Perinatal Depression Into Pediatric PracticeThe 2–25% paternal range and the 50% conditional figure, the prevalence of paternal depression rising to 50% when the mother is affected, the four named well-child screening visits, the “consider screening the partner as well at the 6-month visit” wording, the EPDS threshold of 10 stated for mothers, the statement that the instrument has been validated for men, the maternal peak at 6 weeks and again at 6 months, the substance-use and domestic-violence presentation instead of sadness, the protective-factor statement, and “screening is not diagnostic” Paulson & Bazemore, JAMA 2010 — Prenatal and Postpartum Depression in Fathers, a meta-analysisThe pooled 10.4% meta-estimate and its 8.5–12.7% interval, the 25.6% rate for the 3- to 6-month postpartum period, the 43 studies and 28,004 participants, and the paternal-maternal correlation Matthey, Barnett, Kavanagh & Howie, J Affect Disord 2001 — Validation of the EPDS for menThe conclusion that fathers need a two-point-lower cut-off and the recommendation of 5/6 Shafian et al., Heliyon 2022 — Systematic review and meta-analysis of EPDS validation in fathersThe pooled satisfactory cut-off band of 7–10, from 7 studies and 2,393 participants Walsh, Davis & Garfield, Pediatrics 2020 — A Call to Action: Screening Fathers for Perinatal DepressionThe 2–25% range across studies, the absence of father-specific diagnostic criteria, the irritability-and-substance-use presentation compared with maternal sadness, the 68% increase over five years, the gradual onset rising over the first year, and the argument that the AAP’s partner-screening position is inadequate Postpartum Support International — Help for DadsOne in ten dads, the 5–15% for anxiety disorders, the HelpLine number and its stated limits, the dads support group, the peer mentor programme and the lived-experience specialists HRSA — National Maternal Mental Health HotlineThe current number, 1-833-TLC-MAMA (1-833-852-6262), and HRSA’s own statement that the line is not a crisis line 988 Suicide & Crisis LifelineThe crisis number, as the AAP’s parent-facing guidance also publishes it

The pages that answer the questions this one raises.

This page is the numbers. These are the day-to-day surfaces around it.

Recovery

Dad recovery checklist after baby

The part of the first weeks that is about you rather than the baby.

Crying

The witching hour, for dads

Published crying curves and what the sources say actually helps — including the numbers for when crying is a reason to call.

Checkups

Baby checkup tools for dads

Which well-child visits fall when, so the 6-month visit the AAP names is on your calendar.

Leave

Paternity leave planner

Return-to-work is a published risk factor for both parents and it lands inside the 3- to 6-month window.

Nights

Newborn night shift schedule

Sleep loss sits behind a lot of this, and the split is something you can plan.

Safety first

Safe sleep for dads

The eight safe-sleep rules, and the four places the published guidance disagrees.

Published by DadYolked · Updated September 28, 2026 · Editorial standards and corrections — every figure on this page is restated from the cited sources and is general information, not medical advice for you or your family; your care team’s instructions override it. This page is not clinically reviewed, reproduces no screening instrument, and cannot tell you whether you or anyone else has postpartum depression.