Postpartum Anxiety Screener (GAD-7)

The GAD-7 is a 7-question screening scale for generalized anxiety, developed by Spitzer, Kroenke, Williams, and Löwe and published in the Archives of Internal Medicine in 2006. Each question asks how often something has bothered you over the past 2 weeks and is scored 0 to 3, for a total of 0 to 21 — higher totals mean more symptoms. It's one of the most widely used anxiety screens in the world and is public domain. Perinatal anxiety — the worry, dread, racing thoughts, and physical tension that can appear during pregnancy or after birth — can be as common as postpartum depression, yet it's under-recognized because new-parent worry gets waved off as normal. The GAD-7 gives that worry a number and a next step; it flags who should talk with a clinician, but it cannot diagnose anyone by itself.

Using the published cut-offs: 0 to 4 is minimal anxiety, 5 to 9 is mild, 10 to 14 is moderate, and 15 to 21 is severe. A total of 10 or higher is the common threshold at which clinicians look further, so at that point talking with your provider is the recommended step; scores of 5 to 9 are worth watching and mentioning at your next visit. Separately from the score, any thoughts of harming yourself or your baby deserve immediate attention regardless of your total — which is why this tool shows crisis resources the moment the safety question is answered. A score is a starting point for a conversation, never a diagnosis: only a clinician can make that call after talking with you.

They overlap and often travel together, but they aren't the same. Depression tends to center on low mood, loss of interest, guilt, and feeling flat or hopeless — which is what the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) screens for. Anxiety centers on worry you can't switch off, a sense of dread or that something awful will happen, racing thoughts, irritability, trouble relaxing, and physical symptoms like a pounding heart, tight chest, or being unable to sleep even when the baby sleeps. Because screening programs historically focused on depression, anxiety gets missed more often. If your worry is the loudest symptom, the GAD-7 is the better fit; if low mood is, the EPDS is — and many people benefit from taking both, since treatment can address either or both.

Yes to both. Anxiety around a baby isn't limited to after birth — it's common during pregnancy too, and ACOG recommends screening for anxiety as well as depression at perinatal visits. The GAD-7 asks about the past 2 weeks and works the same whenever you take it. Partners and fathers can develop perinatal anxiety as well, and the GAD-7 is a general anxiety screen that applies to anyone. Whoever is answering, the same rules apply: answer honestly rather than bravely, treat the result as a prompt to talk with a clinician rather than a verdict, and act on any thoughts of self-harm regardless of the number.

Most perinatal anxiety is distressing but not an emergency, and it responds well to treatment. It becomes urgent in two situations. First, any thoughts of harming yourself or your baby — call or text 988, call the National Maternal Mental Health Hotline at 1-833-TLC-MAMA, and if you're in immediate danger call 911. Second, postpartum psychosis, which is rare but a true emergency: it usually begins suddenly in the first two weeks after birth with hallucinations, beliefs that aren't true, confusion or paranoia, severe agitation, an inability to sleep for days, or intrusive thoughts about the baby that feel compelling rather than merely frightening. That is a 911 or emergency-room situation, not something to screen and wait out — and you shouldn't be left alone. With urgent treatment, people recover; the danger is in delay.

Yes. This tool runs entirely in your browser. Your answers are scored on your own device and are never sent to a server, saved, or shared — close the tab and they're gone. In a post-Dobbs world we treat reproductive and mental-health data as sensitive by default. It's general educational information based on a published, public-domain screening scale; it can't diagnose you or replace a conversation with a clinician.