Maternal Distress and Postnatal Depression: The Myth of Madonna

215 Pages·1997·17.081 MB·English

by  Jane Littlewood, Nessa McHugh (auth.)

MATERNAL DISTRESS
AND POSTNATAL DEPRESSION
The Myth of Madonna
Other booksbylane Littlewood
ASPECTS OFGRIEF
APPLIED RESEARCH FORBETTER PRACTICE*
(with A.Everitt, P.Hardikerand A.MuHender)
MISCONSTRUING THEFEMININE: SOCIAL CHANGE ANDSOCIAL
CONTROL*
(forthcoming)
THE WIDOWS' TALES: CONSTRUCTIONS AND EXPERIENCES OF
WIDOWHOOD*
(forthcoming)
*alsopublishedby Macmillan
MATERNAl DISTRESS
AND POSTNATAL DEPRESSION
The Myth of Madonna
[ane Littlewood
Senior Lecturer in SodaI Policy and Politics
Goldsmiths' College,University of London
Nessa McHugh
Lecturer in Midwifery
OeMontfort University, Leicester
~
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©[aneLittlewoodand NessaMcHugh 1997
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ISBN 978-0-333-63834-7 ISBN 978-1-349-13755-8 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-13755-8
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Writtenin the understandingthatbirth, likedeath, isa
process thatshouldnot. in ordinarycircumstances, be
mlnlmlsed,denied, manipulatedor controlled.
Contents
List01rabIesandFigures viii
Acknowiedgements ix
Introduction 1
Part One: Models of Maternal Distress and Depression 5
1 Maternity and madness 7
2 Distressing eventsoccurringat or around the
time of childbirth 27
3 Psychologicalapproaches todistress and
depressionfollowingchildbirth 49
4 Sociological explanations of the origins of
postnataldistress and depression 68
Part Two: Women's Experiences and Incidents
Associated withDistress and Depression
Following Childbirth 87
5 Childbirth as a rite of passage: the mythof Madonna 89
6 Motherhoodand the experienceof distress and depression 105
7 Motherhood, lossand distress following childbirth 129
8 When a babydies 145
9 Helping women who become distressed and/ordepressed
followingchildbirth 163
Appendices 183
IlndicatorsofsuccessinChangingChildbirth 185
11 TheEdinburgh PostnatalDepressionScale 186
III Probableand potentialinterventionsduringlabour
and childbirth 189
IV Organisationsthatofferhelptomothersexperiencing
depressionand otherformsofpostnataldistress 197
NameIndex 207
Subject Index 211
vii
List of Tables and Figures
Tables
1.1 Response toconcernsoverpoor health 13
2.1 Threestagesof postnataldepression/premenstrual
syndrome 30
2.2 Asummaryof theframework of birthtrauma 39
3.1 Parentalorientation andsystem of beliefs 53
3.2 Examples from theSocialReadjustmentRatingScale 63
6.1 The ICn 10 classificationof puerperaldisorders 106
6.2 Postpartumspecifier 107
7.1 Causes of pretermbirth 130
7.2 Pretermbirth as an abnormal transition 131
9.1 Ante- and postnatalcontactwith health professionals 166
Figures
2.1 The cascadeof intervention:an induction 34
7.1 Ageneralmodel of copingwhen the outcome
of motherhood isuncertain 141
viii
Acknowledgements
This book initially grew out of research concerned with postnatal
depression, stillbirthandneonataldeath. Many discussionswere held
by a group of researchers concerned with Women and Welfare at
GoldsmithsCollege,University of London. Wewould liketo thankthe
groupfortheir interest,theircontributions and their patience.Many
women who had suffered from postnatal depression were also kind
enough to agree to contribute. We would like to thank them all for
their honesty and their courage in speaking openly about an
extremelypainfulexperience. Wehope thattheywillfeelfairlyrepre
sented by what is'wrltten here and that their experiences will be
betterunderstood.
Thisworkhas alsobenefltedgreatlyfromthe manyotherresearchers
who havewrittenaboutthis area inan attempttopromoteamoreopen
discussion of women's experiences of postnatal depression. Wewould
liketothankthemall.
Weowe particularthanks to LesleyTaylor forher support and her
valuable work concerningthe experiencesof women who have given
birth preterm. We also owe thanks to Carole Walker and Vivian
Dhaliwal: to Carole for her support and practical assistance, and to
Vivian forhervaluablecontributionsandsecretarialsupport.
[ane Littlewood would also liketo thank Malcolm Nicholas for his
resolute support and his valuablecomments upon earlier versions of
thismanuscript.
Everyeffort hasbeen made to traceallthecopyrightholders but,if
any have been inadvertently overlooked, the publishers will be
pleasedto make the necessaryarrangementat thefirst opportunity.
ix