Objective To construct a network model of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms among postpartum women, to identify core symptoms and bridge symptoms within the network, and to provide a basis for formulating precise intervention strategies. Methods A cross-sectional survey design was utilized, conveniently selecting postpartum women who had given birth within the past year from three tertiary general hospitals in Shiyan City as participants. The demographic questionnaire ,and the City Birth Trauma Scale were employed for the survey, and R4.4.3 software was used to conduct network analysis of postpartum PTSD symptoms. Results A total of 686 valid samples were collected，among whom，24（3.50%）were diagnosed with postpartum PTSD. The strongest correlations were observed between "trauma-related dreams" and "flashbacks of the traumatic event", "avoidance of memories, thoughts, or feelings related to the traumatic events" and "avoidance of external cues related to the traumatic events", with regularized partial correlation coefficients of 0.385 and 0.359. The symptom "hypervigilance" (rs=1.198) and "avoidance of memories, thoughts, or feelings related to the traumatic events" (rs=1.133) exhibited the highest node strength; the symptom "negative emotions related to trauma" demonstrated the highest betweenness centrality (rb=70) and closeness centrality (rc=0.00404); the bridge strength was highest between "avoidance of memories, thoughts, or feelings related to the traumatic events" and "avoidance of activities or situations that might trigger memories of the traumatic events". Conclusion This a network model of postpartum PTSD symptoms in mothers, revealing complex inter-symptom association patterns. It identified two core symptoms-"hypervigilance", and “negative emotions related to the trauma"-as well as two bridging symptoms- "avoidance of memories, thoughts, or feelings related to the traumatic events" and "avoidance of external cues related to the traumatic events" . These findings suggest that future research should target these key symptoms as intervention points to effectively disrupt the vicious cycle between symptoms, alleviate postpartum PTSD manifestations, and promote psychological recovery.