About the Author

Karen Kleiman, MSW, LCSW, is an internationally recognized maternal mental health expert, therapist, educator, and author who has spent more than three decades helping parents navigate the emotional challenges of pregnancy and postpartum life. Founder of The Postpartum Stress Center and The Karen Kleiman Training Center, she is a leading voice in the treatment of postpartum depression, anxiety, OCD, and related conditions. Through her bestselling books, workshops, and training programs, Kleiman has helped millions of parents and healthcare professionals better understand maternal mental health. Known for her compassionate, practical, and reassuring approach, she is the author of Good Moms Have Scary Thoughts, What About Us?, Unchecked, and numerous other trusted resources for new and expecting parents.

Reviews

"This brilliant little book is chock-full of truths about the common realities of new motherhood. Once again, Kleiman says what we are all thinking—and too scared to say out loud. With comic relief, she puts it all out there!"- Catherine Birndorf, MD co-founder of The Motherhood Center of New York

"Learning about important subjects doesn’t always have to come in a textbook! Karen Kleiman has done it again. A powerful and relevant book to inform, to enlighten, and to treasure. This book should be read by every new mother, everyone who loves her, and every single healthcare provider."
- Diana Barnes, PsyD, editor of Women’s Reproductive Mental Health Across the Lifespan
 
"With humor and honesty, this illustrated self-help guide for new mothers offers an alternative to the earnestness of more traditional books on the subject. Eschewing the typical advice and information about baby care, the comics and information are entirely devoted to the experiences of women who have recently given birth. Difficult topics such as postpartum depression, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorder get frank discussion, and the tone is reassuring without diminishing the potential seriousness of these issues. The illustrations are sunny and relatable, depicting women of diverse ethnicities and body types. The format is especially effective in conveying, through speech and thought balloons, the differences between what new mothers might say and what they are really feeling... New mothers will find this work a reassuring companion in a challenging time. (Mar.)"
- Publishers Weekly
 
"Illustrated and inspirational, Good Moms Have Scary Thoughts takes a conversational yet serious graphic novel approach to helping mothers cope with their darkest mothering moments. Karen Kleiman, co-author of This Isn’t What I Expected, writes with the most empathetic of pens, and the winning illustrations of Molly McIntyre convey a fantastic amount of data and emotion in this flawless project."
- Matt Sutherland, Foreword Reviews

"...a brilliant guide for new moms."
-BookPage
 

 "a gold standard in terms of normalizing conversations around the intrusive thoughts that so often come along with new motherhood."—Paige Bellenbaum, Romper.com