This paper reviews the psychiatry of the puerperium, in the light of work published during the last eight years. Many distinct disorders are seen. In addition to various psychoses and a heterogeneous group of depressions, there are specific anxiety, obsessional and stress-related disorders. It is important to identify severe disorders of the mother-infant relationship, which usually respond to treatment, but have pernicious effects if untreated. The complexity of post-partum psychiatry requires the deployment of multidisciplinary specialist teams, which can handle the challenges of therapy, prevention, training, research and service development.