Postnatal Anxiety Is More Common Than Depression in Singapore, So Why Does No One Talk About It?
If you had postnatal depression on your radar as a new or expecting mum in Singapore, you were watching for the right thing, just not necessarily the most common one. A 2025 study led by KK Women's and Children's Hospital, surveying 602 women through pregnancy and after birth, found that clinically significant anxiety affected 48.4 percent of women during pregnancy and 56.7 percent after birth, roughly two to four times the rates found for depression in the same women (11.9 percent antenatal, 23.7 percent postnatal). Anxiety, not depression, is the more common experience. It just gets talked about far less.
Part of the reason is that so much of perinatal mental health screening and conversation is built around depression. The Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, the tool most commonly used in Singapore's hospitals, does pick up some anxiety symptoms, but depression is what it is named for and what most people, including many new mothers themselves, are on the lookout for. Racing thoughts, constant worry about the baby's safety, a wired, can't switch off feeling, these can just as easily read as normal new parent nerves rather than something worth naming and addressing.
The same KKH study found something almost as telling. 96.8 percent of women knew that mental health struggles during pregnancy and after birth were a real thing, and most could describe warning signs to watch for. But only 24.1 percent had actually received a professional mental health assessment or any education on it. When asked who they would turn to if they were struggling, 57 percent said their spouse or partner would be their first port of call, and only 15.5 percent said they would consult a healthcare professional. Knowing the problem exists and knowing where to bring it are two different things, and right now there is a real gap between them.
The good news is that there is somewhere to bring it. KK Women's and Children's Hospital runs a Postnatal Depression Intervention Programme, with screening built into specialist clinic reviews between two and eight weeks after birth. National University Hospital's Women's Emotional Health Service has been doing similar work since 2007, screening for depression and severe anxiety during pregnancy as well as postpartum. Together, the two programmes had supported more than 165,000 women as of the end of 2020. Singapore General Hospital runs a psychiatry clinic co-located with its obstetrics and gynaecology outpatient services, so a referral from your obstetrician can lead straight into care. None of these require a crisis to access. A conversation with your obstetrician or your polyclinic doctor about how you have genuinely been feeling is enough to start.
Clinical screening and treatment are the front line, and nothing here is meant to replace that. But the weeks and months around birth are also when the basics, sleep, food, movement, and having your recovery properly supported rather than rushed, do a lot of quiet work for how a woman copes. Confinement practices done well, realistic movement reintroduced at a pace the body can handle, and nutrition that actually accounts for the physical demands of healing and feeding a baby, all sit alongside good clinical care rather than in competition with it. Anxiety that has a physiological root, exhaustion, blood sugar swings, a nervous system that has not had a chance to come down from birth, responds to this kind of support too.
If you have been feeling anxious, on edge, or like you cannot quite relax since having a baby, that is not you failing to cope. Based on the numbers, it is closer to the norm than the exception, and it is worth naming out loud, whether that is to your doctor, your partner, or someone trained to help you through it. If it would help to talk through what extra support during pregnancy or recovery could look like for you, you are welcome to get in touch.
Sources
Quah PL, et al. (2025). "Perinatal mental health in Singapore: prevalence, knowledge, attitudes, and practices." Frontiers in Medicine, Volume 12. "Antenatal anxiety 48.4%, postnatal anxiety 56.7%, antenatal depression 11.9%, postnatal depression 23.7%... only 24.1% received professional assessment or education... 15.5% willing to consult healthcare professionals." frontiersin.org
Ministry of Health, Singapore. "Mental Health Support for New and Expectant Mothers." "As of December 2020, more than 165,000 women have benefitted from the WEHS and PNDIP programmes." moh.gov.sg