In plain words
The Perinatal Anxiety Screening Scale is a questionnaire with 31 questions about anxiety. You answer each one about how you have been feeling, and the total score gives a sense of how much anxiety you are having. It was designed for the time around pregnancy and birth, when some questions about the body and the baby may apply. It is a screening tool, so a high score means it is worth talking with your provider. It does not diagnose a condition by itself. Other screens, such as the and the anxiety items, are also used. Ask your provider which screen they use and what the score means.
The deeper version
The Perinatal Anxiety Screening Scale (PASS) was developed and preliminarily validated by Somerville et al. (2014) as a 31-item instrument with four factors: acute anxiety and adjustment, general worry and specific fears, perfectionism and control, and social anxiety, with a cut-off of 26 reported in validation studies for identifying probable anxiety disorder. ACOG Clinical Practice Guideline No. 4 (2023) supports screening with validated tools, and the PASS, the GAD-7, and the EPDS anxiety subscale are among those used for . Screening instruments have modest specificity in the perinatal population, and positive screens require clinical interview to confirm a diagnosis. Cut-offs differ across validation samples, and no single threshold is universally endorsed.
Where it comes up
- Leaving the house for the first timeSupport, Home, and Village
- Postpartum anxietyPostpartum: Mind
- Anxiety in pregnancyPregnancy: Mind and Life
- When to get help, and who to call tonightPostpartum: Mind
- Writing a postpartum plan (the plan that matters more)Getting Ready for Birth
What mothers here say about Perinatal Anxiety Screening Scale
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Sources
- Somerville S et al. — The Perinatal Anxiety Screening Scale: development and preliminary validation. Archives of Women's Mental Health, 2014
- American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists — Clinical Practice Guideline No. 4: Screening and Diagnosis of Mental Health Conditions During Pregnancy and Postpartum (2023)