“Halfway towards recovery”: Rehabilitating the relational self in narratives of postnatal depression

Feminism and a Vital Politics of Depression and Recovery

“…Advances in neuroscience, psychiatry, clinical psychology, psychopharmacology and digital health technologies all play a significant role in materialising (gendered) knowledge about the complex, invisible and immaterial dimensions of mental or emotional distress in the contemporary moment (Blackman, 2012;Rose & Abi-Rached, 2013;Ussher, 2011). What is curiously missing from public discourse about tackling depression or anxiety are the critical insights of feminist researchers who have long documented the historically situated relationships between women's emotional lives, the politics of mental health diagnosis and various forms of discrimination, inequity and violence (Appignanesi, 2011;Chandler, 2016;McDermott & Roen, 2016;Stone & Kokanovic, 2016;Stoppard, 2000;Ussher, 1991;Wiener, 2005). At stake in these debates is the key issue of how women's experiences of mental health come to be culturally imagined and felt as personal troubles, rather than as "public feelings" that are deeply entwined with historical, sociocultural, economic and political conditions (Cvetkovich, 2012).…”

Supporting The Role And Transition To Motherhood Through The Occupation Of Feeding

“…In interviews mothers reported vast changes in their identity, relationship, and body. Many shared that they would have liked more support which suggests a lack of maternal care in the community in line with research findings that mothers often report feeling "uncared for" (Stone & Kokanovic, 2016). Mothers reported increased difficulty managing their relationship and intimacy with their partners.…”

“…It is crucial for a physician to ask questions about how a mother is feeling and sleeping, how her moods are, and whether she is experiencing anxiety in order to ensure open communication between mother and health professional about maternal mental health (Kurtz, Levine, & Safyer, 2017). Stone and Kokanovic (2016) found that women currently feel "uncared for" during early maternity and that health care providers should be treating a mother and her infant together as a unit. The initial phase of breastfeeding is crucial to a woman's milk supply and duration of breastfeeding because so many women experience early breastfeeding difficulties or negative breastfeeding experiences (Palmér & Jutengren, 2019).…”

Unravelling subjectivity, embodied experience and (taking) psychotropic medication

“…Initially, they were read closely by the two first authors and discussed broadly in the light of existing literature. We used participants transcripts both ‘as a rich source of qualitative data’ and to observe how individual stories moved in and out of the trajectory of collective narrations (Stone and Kokanović, 2016, p. 101). This approach directed our attention to ‘nodes of interest’ that warranted further critical attention and could alert us to concealed meanings (see Davidsen, 2013).…”