There is continuing debate amongst researchers and clinicians as to the relationship between depression and anxiety, with the general (although not universal) belief that they are distinct diagnoses. Recent research has attempted to identify the specific psychological and physiological aspects of each disorder that are exclusive to that disorder. Such debate appears to be absent from studies on postpartum women with Odepression¹ the only non-psychotic psychiatric diagnosis available for women who are experiencing symptoms of emotional distress specifically related to the postpartum period. This is problematic as the primary symptom of postpartum depression is said to be Oanxiety¹. It therefore seems likely that anxiety and depression, which are often clinically confused by psychologists and psychiatrists, are also confused during the postpartum period making treatment problematic. For researchers, this problem is compounded by instruments such as the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) which is widely reported in the research literature and contains many questions commonly considered to define anxiety, along with questions more specifically on Odepression¹. In an effort to tease out these matters, this study examines patterns of responses given by women who are between 6 and 12 weeks postpartum (and a non-postpartum cohort) on 4 self-report instruments: the EPDS; the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI); the Center for Epidemiologic Studies - Depression Scale (CES-D); and the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS). The study aims to assess the contribution of depression and anxiety in postpartum women using statistically independent measures and to test the validity of the EPDS as a measure of Odepression¹ in the postpartum period. The study also examines the response differences between the depression and anxiety experienced by a sample of unselected postpartum women and that of non-postpartum women.