Catherine Birndorf, MD

Catherine Birndorf, MD, is Co-Founder and Medical Director of The Motherhood Center, a treatment center in New York City for pregnant and new moms experiencing anxiety and depression. Dr. Birndorf’s area of psychiatric expertise is in reproductive mental health, helping women with emotional distress during times of hormonal change, from menses to menopause. She specializes in treating women before, during, and after pregnancy, as well as at other times of transition in their lives.   

A Smith College graduate, Dr. Birndorf attended Brown University Medical School and did her psychiatry residency at New York Presbyterian Hospital (Cornell), serving as Chief Resident. She is Founding Director of the Payne Whitney Women’s Program at the New York-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell Medical Center, where she is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Obstetrics & Gynecology. 

She is also the founder of the Women’s Mental Health Consortium, a New York area network of women’s mental health clinicians and researchers.

Dr. Birndorf is a board member of Postpartum Support International, a non-profit organization for awareness, prevention, and treatment of mental health issues related to childbearing worldwide. For 10 years, Dr. Birndorf was a regular mental health columnist for Self magazine and has appeared on numerous television programs, including the The Today Show, Good Morning America, MSNBC, and CNN. Her first book, The Nine Rooms of Happiness, co-authored with Lucy Danziger, was published in 2010. She has also co-authored, along with Alexandra Sacks, What No One Tells You.