User:Amm567/sandbox

Postpartum Depression Notes and Sources

Early beginnings: Late 14th/ early 15th century: The Book of Margery Kempe

-Story about a Christian mystic and pilgrim known as the "Madwoman"

-She had a tough labor and delivery followed by a long physical recovery period during which she started descending into "madness" and became suicidal

A Historical Perspective on the Psychiatry of Motherhood is a good book that details the history of postpartum depression

-begins with Hippocrates who was the first person to discuss postpartum depression and laid the groundwork for conversations about postpartum for centuries to come

-focusing on how the ideas that Hippocrates put forth still find their way into the way we think about postpartum depression today

-Really interesting article on the insanity defense for mothers suffering from postpartum

-speaks to the larger issue of how mental health is still viewed in the world today as compared to a physical illness

Two famous cases that changed the way we think about postpartum depression:

-Andrea Yates, a former nurse and mother, was suffering from postpartum depression when she drowned her five children in a bathtub

-Brooke Shields went on many talk shows, including NPR on Birth and Depression

-Speaks to the emotional turning points that flood in and sparked the connection between her and her baby

-Even wrote the book called "Down Came the Rain" on her journey with postpartum depression